


In a Perfect World

by Lyatt1941



Category: Timeless - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 18:04:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyatt1941/pseuds/Lyatt1941
Summary: A revamp of S2 from Episode 7 on.  It's still not the way I would've liked the episodes to go, but for the purposes of this work, I tried to keep the main story elements in place with a few changes that I thought would've made the story a bit more compelling and consistent.  This shows more of Wyatt's inner turmoil, more manipulation from Trashi...I mean Jessica, and not just Jiya is kidnapped....because really?  We all know who RH was REALLY after.This is my first Fic - hope you enjoy it!I don't own Timeless - it owns me.





	1. Ch 1

_So where does that leave us?_

_Same place as always.  Kicking ass and saving the world._

Lucy’s words resonated within the prison that was Wyatt’s mind for what seemed like an eternity.   The rift that had developed between them when Jessica had suddenly reappeared was slowly killing them both, threatening to tear a hole in each of their hearts.   To be in such close quarters, seeing each other every day, working side by side, sharing the same meal at the same table and yet to be so very far apart was proving to be more than either of them could handle.  The cracks were beginning to form as the pressure got heavier with each passing day.   Working together, side by side on this last jump had made Wyatt realize how much he missed just being near Lucy.  Her anger and frustration with him, his jealousy over her budding friendship with Flynn, their mutual frustration at the situation in which they found themselves had boiled over into a series of arguments, but at the end of the day, they were team mates, friends, and Wyatt was unbelievably proud of her strength, character and courage. When Grace Humiston found her voice, the voice that Lucy had inspired within her, Wyatt knew that no one on this Earth could fill his heart with as much pride and joy as Lucy Preston.  As he sat in the LifeBoat across from her on the journey back to the present, his thoughts were filled with nothing but her and how much she meant to him. 

 

Exiting the LifeBoat, however, was like crossing into an entirely different universe. Once he re-entered the present, he was in a mess of his own making.  He could no longer talk to Lucy, look at Lucy, or be near Lucy in the same way that he could while on a mission. For the first time in weeks, Wyatt and Lucy had been together.  Alone.  They argued, sure…but they were able to talk about their very difficult and painful situation.  After weeks of emotional and physical distance, 1919 had given them the opportunity to talk and talk is what they desperately needed.  Any gains that were made on that mission, however were roughly tossed aside by a pair of familiar, yet unwelcome lips that met his on the Silo floor.  Jessica had approached and wrapped Wyatt into an uncomfortable kiss – uncomfortable because Lucy who had only just communicated the hurt she was feeling because of this VERY situation - was standing and looking on at the two of them with a look that both pained and humiliated him. 

 

 He couldn’t keep doing this.  He couldn’t continue to live this lie.  He loved Jessica, of course he did, she had been his wife, but his heart was Lucy’s.  Jessica had lived six years in a timeline that he had no memory of.  Six years of fights, drunkenness, unhappiness, and counseling.  For Wyatt, that six years was dominated by guilt, grief and pain….and he had only begun to live again because of the miracle that was Lucy Preston.  Her face, which a few moments ago was beaming with pride for what Grace Humiston had done in the place of Alice Paul – was now reflecting the anguish she felt in seeing Wyatt in the arms of someone else.   He understood that he was to blame for that heartache – Jess’s kiss was hers to give, he invited her there, had asked for that second chance; but in attempting to do the right thing, he had hurt Lucy.  While it pained him to hurt her, the biggest pang of regret came when he realized not long after Jess arrived that he was attempting to regain something that he now knew had been lost long before _his_ Jess had gone missing that fateful night.  He understood now that he had idealized their marriage – remembering only the good times they shared and glossing over the fact that more often than not, they were fighting and barely able to see eye to eye on the simplest of issues.  He was a changed man, now - sure– but that change he owed to Lucy and the more time he spent away from her, the further he felt from her influence on his thoughts and actions.  She was a lifeline to him and he was being sent adrift into a storm that would inevitably break that connection and he knew he could not survive without it. 

 

He sought out Lucy, after the mission debrief, desperately hoping to fix the mess he put them all in.  This conversation, long overdue, was an attempt on Wyatt’s part to gauge Lucy’s feelings, but mostly he just wanted to be near her, to touch her, to be as alone as he could be with her in a bunker full of people.  She still cared for him but she wouldn’t stand between him and his wife.  She was Lucy Preston, after all and he hadn’t expected anything less.  It was her insistence, however, that he was in love with Jessica that _this_ was what _he_ wanted, that made him pause.  She didn’t know…or worse, she believed that he thought of her less than he did of Jessica.  The she somehow couldn’t measure up to the wife, the dream, that he had spent the whole first part of their acquaintance describing. 

 

_So where does that leave us?_

_The same place we’ve always been.  Kicking ass and saving the world._

Wyatt smirked at that comment – they made a good team, no one could doubt it for a second.  But then, the emptiness settled in.  She was saying they were supposed to go back to what they were before…but it would be less than what they were before, because how could they return to casual touches and smiling glances without being painfully reminded of their one perfect night in 1941?  It wouldn’t work and to be near her but _not_ be near her was something that Wyatt could not stand.  His voice caught in his throat, but he had to tell her.  “Lucy, that’s not enough for me...and I don’t think it’s enough for you.”

 

Lucy heaved a sigh and shook her head, retreating further into the open space of the bunker.  “It will have to be enough, Wyatt.  You have a wife you love and I will not be the _other_ woman.”

 

Wyatt closed the space between them again. “Lucy, listen…”

 

‘No, Wyatt...I can’t do this… _we_ can’t do this.” Lucy turned sharply and faced him.  “This is what you have wanted since I’ve known you and I’m not getting in the way of that.  You’re in love Jessica, your wife and we have to accept that.”

 

“Damnit Lucy, I’m not in love with Jessica, I’m in love with you.”  The words came tumbling out of Wyatt’s mouth desperately, almost painfully as he approached her again.  He searched her face, trying to catch a glimmer of understanding and hopefully, of reciprocation.   After everything he had put her through, after all the pain that she felt when he brought his once dead wife to live with them, could she possibly still love him enough to forgive him? 

 

Lucy’s heart was in her throat.  She felt the tears threatening to fall from her eyes.  She hadn’t expected this.  He had left so quickly after that text came, left her with no explanation until hours later.  She could hardly believe what she was hearing.  How could he be in love with her when Jessica was the one he stole a Time Machine for?  How could he be in love with her when Jessica was the lightning bolt that made him believe in love at first sight?  Wyatt was near her now, his hands now grasping her own. 

 

“Lucy, look…I loved Jessica, but I can’t live this lie anymore.  It’s been six years for me and our marriage wasn’t what I thought it was.  I’ve been beating myself up since that night thinking that if I could go back and change it, that everything would be alright – that I would be happy.”  He looked in her eyes and lifted one of his hands to caress her cheek.  “But I’m not happy, Lucy.  I don’t know Jess anymore, not _this_ Jess - and no matter how hard I try to make it work, all I can think of is how much I love you and how much I miss you.” 

 

One solitary tear fell down Lucy’s cheek and Wyatt gently brushed it away with a stroke of his thumb.  “Wyatt” she said softly, “she’s your wife – who am I to stand in the middle of….”

 

“Of what?”  Wyatt asked.  “Lucy, you’re the one who said we can’t keep living in the past.  You’re right.  Jessica is my past.  I didn’t mean to fall in love with you, Lucy, but I did.  I moved on.”  He rubbed his neck with his hands.   “I don’t know why I ran out of here so fast when I saw that text from Jessica, it was just such a shock and I had to see it for myself.  I mean, we step off the LifeBoat and I get a text from my dead wife…it’s not something you can prepare for.  Then when she told me what a terrible husband I’d been, I couldn’t…I just couldn’t end it that way.  I couldn’t.  I wanted to make it right, if I could.  I owed her that much.  I’m not the same person I was, hell, I don’t even know who this guy is she married in this timeline, but that’s just the thing….I don’t know her either.” He pressed his forehead against hers.  “Please Lucy, you…”

 

The tell tale sound of footsteps interrupted them.  They both stepped away from each other – Lucy straightened up, wiped her eyes and walked over to a far corner to collect her thoughts, hugging herself as she did so.  Wyatt turned, scowling, to face whoever it was that decided to venture down this particular corridor at this particular moment…bad timing just seemed to be a running joke around here. 

 

Agent Christopher was the interloper this time.  She paid no attention to the exasperated expression that had spread across Wyatt’s face.  In fact, she wasn’t looking up at all, but was instead, almost totally engrossed in an open folder she was carrying in her right hand.  “Wyatt” she said, finally.  “I was hoping you and I could have a private discussion in the debriefing room.”

 

Wyatt turned to glance back at Lucy, but she had her eyes fixed firmly to the floor, still standing apart from him with her arms hugged around her waist.  He shrugged his shoulders and sighed “Whatever you need, ma’am”. 


	2. Chapter 2

“Good, the sooner we get this over, the better. Let’s go now.” And with that she turned on her heel and made her way back down the corridor. Wyatt didn’t follow immediately. He took a few strides towards Lucy, “Sorry” he said softly. “Agent Christopher….look, just please think about what I said and we’ll talk some more later, okay?” Lucy looked at him intently, searching his face for any sign that he might waver, might regret what he had just told her. His eyes were pleading with her and were soft with emotion. She gave him a small smile and nodded, her heart too full to speak. Wyatt squeezed her hand and followed the path forged earlier by their resident Homeland Security agent. 

He had no idea what Agent Christopher could possibly want or need from him. He had debriefed with the rest of the team earlier that day – why did she need to talk with him again? Maybe she was going to tell him that Jessica wasn’t going to be able to stay in the bunker after all. Won’t be an issue – would actually make this whole situation easier. Or maybe it was about his run-in with Garcia Flynn earlier this morning – that was most likely it. He had been openly hostile not just towards him but towards Agent Christopher herself when she insisted that Flynn go along to 1919. As much as Wyatt hated the man, he knew that Flynn had been useful during this jump. He had saved Rufus, he had intercepted Emma and made sure she took out the sleeper, and there at the end, they had fought off that mob side by side, like actual team mates. 

“Shut the door, Wyatt” Agent Christopher announced as he entered the small storage area that doubled as a debriefing room. Wyatt obeyed and decided he would beat her to the punch. 

“Ma’am I apologize for how I acted this morning. I was out of line. While it’s no secret I don’t trust or like Garcia Flynn, he was a big help today and I know for a fact that Rufus he saved Rufus’ ass once or twice out there.”

“That’s not why I called you in here, Sergeant.” She paused and looked down at the table serving as her desk. She seemed to be weighing her words carefully. When she spoke again, she was hesitant, gentle and almost apologetic, “Wyatt, have you noticed anything unusual in your wife’s behavior since she reappeared?” 

This line of questioning took Wyatt completely by surprise. “No, ma’am…I mean, other than her being alive after burying her six years ago. Obviously her memories of the last six years are different than mine.” 

Agent Christopher opened the folder she had been carrying. She shifted a few papers around and then handed Wyatt what appeared to be a photograph. A photograph of Jessica. “This was found on a recovered hard drive that we collected from the Rittenhouse raid. This is just one of many photographs of Jessica found in those files. I don’t know what it means, but I do think we need to be exercising extreme caution. Rittenhouse almost certainly brought her back and they are most obviously keeping tabs on her.” 

Wyatt felt the floor beneath him shift. He found himself collapsing into a nearby chair. Rittenhouse? How could Jess be tied to Rittenhouse? “Ma’am I’ve known Jessica since high school, I know her family, they aren’t Rittenhouse.” 

“Yes, you knew your Jessica…but your Jessica also died six years ago, or so you tell me. This Jessica, well, she’s different isn’t she?” Agent Christopher looked at Wyatt, she was not expecting an answer – she was making a point. And what a point. Didn’t Wyatt, himself, JUST tell Lucy that this Jessica was not his Jessica? 

Wyatt was still not convinced. Lucy had said that Rittenhouse was something you were born into, not something you joined. It wasn’t like a gym membership – that creepy ass David Rittenhouse had recruited followers, sure - but that was the at the start of this madness. He was damned picky too. He remembered, he was there – saw it firsthand. Wyatt balled up his fist instinctively as he recalled how Rittenhouse senior had groped and pawed at Lucy, eyeing her like she was some prized mare. 

No. Jessica’s family weren’t the kind of people to be descended from someone as choosy at that old bastard. They were dirt poor – and not one of them had ever stepped foot in a university. No, David Rittenhouse was concerned with shaping the future with great minds and connected families. All of these present-day dicks were descendants of those other dicks and none of them seemed to give much credence to the common man. Still, he couldn’t escape the fact that those pictures of Jessica were in those Rittenhouse files and it bothered him. 

“What do you need me to do ma’am?” 

“I need you to ask her questions about her past, nothing too obvious. Just try to discern what might be different from her background to the one that you remember. Maybe we can try to find out what her connection to Rittenhouse is without raising suspicion. Keep a close eye on her. Do you think you can do that?” 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“Good”, she sighed. “I don’t need to tell you Wyatt, how concerned I am right now. If Rittenhouse has been monitoring her or if she is somehow working with them, then our bunker, our base of operations, has been compromised…as well as every single person in here. She could be a very real threat and so we must tread very carefully. I’m upping security on our perimeter and I am asking you to keep this from the rest of the team until we know something a little more concrete. I don’t want anyone acting any differently towards her thereby raising her suspicion until we have some solid answers.” 

“Yes ma’am” Wyatt’s mouth felt dry. Idiot, Logan. He knew before he brought her down to the bunker that he was throwing OPSEC completely out the window. But he wasn’t thinking like a soldier then, he was thinking like a grieving husband who had just gotten the shock of a lifetime. Almost as soon as he had arrived at the bunker with her, he had regretted his decision to bring her there for more reasons than one. Security being the most obvious one – but it was just Jess –the awkwardness that would surely come with both Lucy and Jessica living in the bunker being the next. Reckless hothead, never thinking things through. He was inwardly berating himself for potentially endangering his team. His friends. His family. But now, now he had to bite the bullet – he had to do damage control and he prayed that Jessica’s connection to Rittenhouse was nothing more than a bit of intel they had gathered on her because she was married to him. Somehow, though, he knew that was not the case.


	3. Chapter 3

Wyatt approached the room he shared with his once dead wife with mounting apprehension. If she was indeed, being monitored by Rittenhouse, then he had endangered every single person in this bunker. His team. His family. Lucy. 

Shit. She already had a target on her back – her safety in this bunker was therefore essential – how screwed up would it be if the one person she trusted more than any of them, the one who was assigned to protect and watch over her and the rest of the team was the one who brought Rittenhouse right into their safe haven? 

Wyatt found Jessica laying on the cot, reading a novel Jiya had lent her. She glanced up from her book with a knowing grin. “Hey, Wyatt – did you finish with Agent Christopher?” 

Wyatt eyed her suspiciously, “How did you know I was talking with Agent Christopher?” 

“Oh, I went to look for you a little while ago and Lucy told me that she had asked to talk with you.” She lifted her mouth in a simpering grin, “Did you get in trouble?”. Jessica stuck what appeared to be a photograph within the pages of Girl With a Dragon Tattoo and turned her full attention to Wyatt. 

Oh God – Lucy. I just left her standing there, I didn’t go back to her. Wyatt attempted to hide his sudden realization from Jessica as she stood up and closed the space between them. “No, no trouble, I just needed to clarify some points from my debrief, that’s all.” He lied. Jessica wrapped her arms around Wyatt and gazed up at his face. Wyatt didn’t meet her eye, instead he looked around their shared room. “I’m sorry that you’re stuck down here while we are off on these missions. I remember how much you loved spending time outside.” 

Jessica shrugged and sighed “Ah, well, it’s not so bad. Jiya lent me a book, but if I don’t feel like reading, I’ve got the whole bunker practically to myself. This place is pretty roomy when most of the people living here are gone. Hell, when Agent Christopher isn’t here, I feel like I’ve got complete run of the place. Jiya’s always working on some formula or another and Mason is always busy with that pile of stuff from the raid. I get sole control of the remote most days, you can’t beat that.” 

Wyatt had tensed up at the mention of the Rittenhouse materials he had procured. After hearing Agent Christopher’s fears, he was uneasy with the idea that Jessica had been roaming around the bunker almost unsupervised for several weeks. The concern he felt must have been showing in his face because Jessica rubbed his arms and said “Hey, What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing” Wyatt lied again. “I just don’t think you are being completely honest with me.” For a half a moment, Jessica flushed, averted her eyes and looked almost guilty. She quickly recovered but her momentary lapse had been caught by Wyatt. 

He smirked at her, and said “Uh-huh, I knew it, you do HATE it here.”  
Jessica sighed and let out a short laugh “Ah, ya caught me. This basement is hardly the Ritz…hell, it doesn’t even come close to an EconoLodge.” Noting the serious look in Wyatt’s face, she paused and said with a grin, “But hey, it beats serving up brewskies to a bunch of handsy barely legals day in and day out. It’s kind of nice to do something different for a change. In fact, Mason was letting me help out with sorting through all of that stuff you brought in – it was like putting a puzzle together – maybe in another life I could’ve been an engineer working for THE Conner Mason.”

Wyatt let out a small laugh but inside he was not so amused. Why the hell was Mason letting Jessica rifle through that intel? He answered himself almost immediately. Because, you idiot, he has no reason to think she can’t – you’re the one who brought her down here. He trusts her because he trusts YOU. Wyatt was doing his best to keep his self-reproach from showing. He picked up the book she had been reading in an effort to hide the mounting feelings of unease in his chest. “How’s the book? I didn’t know you were very much of a reader…you never read much before, unless it was an article about your favorite celebrity couple in People.

There was no mistaking it this time – Jessica looked almost surprised by his accusation and more than a little uncomfortable. “Wyatt” she forced a smile “I love to read, I grew up reading all kinds of books. Maybe you just weren’t paying attention.” She slapped his arms, grabbed the book from his hands and turned to flop down on the cot once more. 

Wyatt had known Jessica since high school. He knew for a fact that she flunked every English Lit exam they had taken. He vividly remembered one terrible fight they had had because he had made an “A” on their Lord of the Flies test and she had only come out with a “D”. Why didn’t you let me cheat, Wyatt? Wyatt hadn’t thought about helping her out, he didn’t think she needed it for that one – he had talked about it so much- that, and they watched the damn movie together. 

While Wyatt was trying to come to terms with this sudden revelation that Jessica was now an avid reader, she flopped down on the cot and tossed the book over on the nightstand. The book hit the corner and landed with a soft thud on the concrete floor. Wyatt bent over and picked it up, but as he did so, the photograph serving as a bookmark fell out and landed just at Wyatt’s feet. 

Jessica quickly snatched up the photo, but not before Wyatt had seen it. Pictured was Jessica, a man, and a woman he recognized as Jessica’s mother. “Hey, let me see that” she gave him a quizzical look. “C’mon Jess, you in a bikini? I’m gonna always want to see a picture of that.” She smirked at him and relented, handing him the photo with an almost bashful smile. 

The photo confused the hell out of Wyatt. Jessica’s family had been just as poor as Wyatt’s, but in this timeline, they appeared to be doing pretty well. The picture showed Jessica, her mother and this mystery man seated at a table at what looked like a high end resort on a beach. Jessica’s mother was draped in a kimino type robe with golden bracelets and rings adorning her fingers. She looked a far cry from the truck stop waitress he knew. Then there was this mystery guy, who had his arm draped around a smiling Jess – who the hell was he? When and where was this photo taken? What, did Jessica’s family win the lottery in this timeline? Wyatt had so many questions, but each one, he was afraid, would make him look like a total ass. He decided to focus his attention on the mystery guy in the photograph – Hey - Who’s the guy with the bad sunburn? He hoped that sounded as off-hand as he meant it to. 

Jessica, again, looked at Wyatt with a mixture of alarm and incredulity – “Um..That’s my brother, Wyatt – you guys go deep sea fishing together all the time.”

“Not in my timeline” said Wyatt. “your brother died when he was three years old of leukemia…and I’ve never gone deep sea fishing in my life.” He watched Jessica’s face for her reaction, but she cast her eyes to the floor. “Jess,” he said quietly, “we were never able to afford anything like…like that…hell, fishing for me meant sitting on the bank of a river with a couple of beers and a trout line.” 

Outwardly, Wyatt was desperately trying to maintain a sense of calm, but inwardly, Wyatt’s head was reeling. What on Earth had changed to save both Jessica and her brother in this particular timeline? And deep sea fishing? What the hell? His mind went back to Agent Christopher’s words. Rittenhouse. But how? Why? What did they do? 

Jessica wouldn’t meet his eye and instead heaved a big sigh with her eyes lifted towards the ceiling. “God, Wyatt, you said yourself that the past six years were different for you than they were for me…” 

“Yeah, but Jess – this isn’t just six years. Your brother died when he was three…and I’m sorry, but you never liked reading. I’ve known you since high school. Your family and mine – both dirt poor and well…nothing like what I see in that photo. Why the hell would that change?” 

Jessica looked murderous. “So what, Wyatt – you’re upset because my brother and I are supposed to be dead and here we are living a good life despite whatever the hell your timeline dictates?” 

“No, Jess….it’s just that - ”

Jessica interrupted him. “Wyatt, I really don’t want to talk about this right now”. She exhaled sharply and started punching the pillow on her cot. “I’m kind of tired and you know this timeline…this time travel stuff just gives me a headache.” Jessica snatched the photograph from Wyatt and placed it back in her book. 

Wyatt was kicking himself – this was exactly the kind of thing Agent Christopher wanted him to avoid, but he couldn’t help it. Things were not adding up. Jessica’s family as he knew them, were a far cry from what would be considered Rittenhouse material. But that picture showed a family that just might fall under their membership guidelines. 

Wyatt knew he had screwed up. He had gone too far and upset Jessica. He may not be the most sensitive guy around but he figured the revelation about her brother’s childhood death would upset anybody. Still, it wasn’t just the fact that her brother was suddenly alive and well…it was the reading and the resort…and the deep sea fishing. This was a past that wasn’t in any way shape or form familiar to him. 

Wyatt cleared his throat and started to head out of the bunker door, “I’m sorry, Jess – I know this isn’t easy for you. I’m just trying to figure this all out. It’s weird knowing you…but not knowing you, ya know?” She didn’t respond. “Do you want me to get you some pain meds for your headache, a glass of water? Anything?” 

“No”, she answered shortly. I just want to be alone for a little while.” And with that, she laid back down on the cot and turned away from him. 

Wyatt left their shared space with a healthy dose of trepidation. Now more than ever he knew that this Jessica was not his Jessica. She may have the same eyes, the same hair, the same voice, but her past, her life, her entire existence was a complete mystery to him. He didn’t know this Jessica and while that in and of itself was unnerving, the most unsettling thing was that this stranger was now living and had been living with them in a top secret bunker. Whether or not she was a threat still remained to be seen, but the fact that Rittenhouse had photos of her in their intel files and her life experiences all the way back to her childhood were unrecognizable to him, gave Wyatt enough reason to remove himself in the common area to figure this whole mess out. 

By now, the bunker was relatively still. Agent Christopher had gone home, Jiya and Rufus were already in bed, Flynn had retreated into his hole and Mason could be heard but not seen rummaging through the pile of Rittenhouse files, piecing together more of that enigmatic puzzle that came from Wyatt’s raid. 

Lucy was the only one still awake, sitting at one of the kitchen tables, sipping on a mug of tea. She hadn’t heard Wyatt approach, so when he pulled out a chair next to her, she nearly leapt out of her seat. “Oh…Wyatt…you scared me to death.”

He smirked. “Sorry, Lucy. I didn’t think you’d still be up.”

She took a sip of her tea and smirked right back at him, “Well, between you and me that sofa isn’t exactly the easiest thing to sleep on.”

Wyatt felt a rush of guilt. She had given up her room, her bed, so that Rufus and Jiya could have some privacy while Jess stayed with Wyatt in their designated space. Lucy, selfless as always, had resigned herself to the hard as a rock sofa – is it any wonder that she went to Flynn’s room the night before? “Lucy, look…I’m so sorry for all of this. I never wanted to hurt you…”

“I know, Wyatt” she interrupted. “I just wanted you to be happy. You deserve it.”

“You deserve to be happy too, you know” Wyatt said quietly, his eyes softening as he looked at her. She turned towards him as he reached for her hand. 

“Lucy,” Wyatt weighed his next words carefully – he had to talk to someone about his fears, but he had promised Agent Christopher he wouldn’t alert the team…not until they knew for sure. “Do you ever wonder what would happen if you did get Amy back? Would she still be the same person? Would she still be the Amy you remember?”

Lucy looked into Wyatt’s eyes. She saw the anxiety hidden behind them, though she could tell he was working very hard to hide it from her. She pursed her lips and thought hard about what he was asking. “Wyatt, to be honest, I hadn’t thought that she could or would be different. I mean, it would be Amy, right? Knowing that she exists again, that she wasn’t just erased from history…that – that would make me happy.” Wyatt nodded his head and looked away. Lucy could tell that he wasn’t quite satisfied with her answer. “Wyatt, what’s wrong? Is this about Jessica?”

He knew he couldn’t divulge all of his suspicions to Lucy, though he desperately wanted to. She was the one person in the entire bunker whom he trusted absolutely. “Lucy, I think I made a terrible mistake and the hell of it is, I can’t even fix that mistake because I’m in too damn deep.” 

Lucy looked confused and hurt. Just earlier he had been talking about choosing her, loving her and now he was talking about “mistakes”. Did he think she was a mistake? Was he regretting their earlier conversation? 

Wyatt seemed to be reading her mind because in the next instant, he clasped her hand and whispered, “This has nothing to do with you and me…okay? But until I figure out what I need to do to rectify the situation, I have to stay with Jessica. This isn’t my choice…believe me when I say I have to do this.” His eyes were pleading with her and his grip on her hand had tightened. He looked desperate, more desperate than Lucy had ever seen him. 

She stared at him for what seemed like hours, the wheels turning in her head to try and make sense of Wyatt’s dilemma. “What did Agent Christopher want to talk to you about?”

Wyatt scoffed, “She’s the reason I can’t do a damn thing about this mess. I promised her.” 

“You promised her what?” Lucy asked searching his face for some hint of an answer. When he didn’t respond, she put her hand to his face and turned it towards her “Wyatt, I trust you but I’m asking you to trust me. Let me help you, please don’t do this alone.”

Wyatt reached his free hand to the one Lucy had laid on his cheek. This closeness, this nearness, this intimacy with her was one of the things he had missed the most. She was like oxygen to him and he had been slowly suffocating without those small life giving caresses that he had come to depend on. His heart wanted to tell her everything, but his mind, the soldier in him – the soldier which should have kept Jessica from coming into the bunker in the first place was screaming loudly in his brain. “Lucy, I promise you – I won’t be doing this alone. I promise you that as soon as I’m able to tell you, I will. For now, you have to trust me and Agent Christopher. Do you think you can do that?” 

Lucy’s brown eyes met his. She nodded.


	4. Chapter 4

The next mission had them saving Agent Christopher herself in Washington, DC. And there was no time to talk over their midnight conversation then. The situation was dire. Rittenhouse had targeted the person who had brought them all together. Without her, none of them would have ever met. 

What would that mean for Lucy? She’s still be teaching at Stanford, doing her damnedest to live up to her mother’s legacy. She would still have Amy. She wouldn’t be targeted by some evil organization and running through decade after decade, century after century trying to preserve the history she knew and loved. She wouldn’t have shot an innocent soldier, spending her nights waking up with his face swimming before her in the darkness, pleading for her to let him live. She wouldn’t be sleeping on a damn hard couch in an underground bunker living with the man she loved and his undead wife. 

But as much as she would love to go back to a comparably carefree existence, she knew that her life now was full of people and purpose that she wouldn’t trade for anything. Without this mission, she wouldn’t have ever known Rufus, Jiya, and yes, even THE Conner Mason. But most importantly of all, she would never have known Wyatt. Despite all the heartache and grief that she felt pressing upon her every minute of every day, she was happy to be near him. Despite living in close contact with him and his wife - knowing him and knowing what is was to be in love, for really the first time in her life, was worth every terrible thing that had happened to her since setting foot in that Time Machine two years ago. 

For Wyatt, there was absolutely no question. His life before Lucy had been hell. Grief stricken, reckless, and completely lost, he took this assignment because he didn’t care what happened to him anymore. His reckless abandon made him the perfect candidate for a mission that required him to put his life on the line for others. His new team became his new family and Lucy – well, Lucy had made him care again, made him feel alive in more ways than one. Not saving a young Denise Christopher would mean that they would return to a present where their team as they know it did not exist. They would still know each other, sure – but Rittenhouse would most likely have control of the Lifeboat and the Mothership and they would be their pawns in a chess game of world domination. 

If Wyatt had learned anything from Rufus and Jiya’s never ending conversations about time-loop theories and time traveling to the past, it’s that his life and timeline and the lives and timelines of his team mates could diverge and face a completely different present….or um…future, depending on how you looked at it - then the one they knew and recognized as their own. Knowing that some version of him may never meet Lucy was a threat too great to be ignored. There could not be any version of him that could be without Lucy – the thought of even hypothetically never meeting her made him feel empty and anxious. 

After it was clear that Agent Christopher was Rittenhouse’s intended target, Wyatt and Rufus split off from Lucy and Jiya to apprehend the sleeper. Wyatt was the only one who had seen the dickhead and he had more than one reason to get that guy talking.   
Interrogating the Rittenhouse sleeper proved to provide far more insight than Wyatt had anticipated. The sleeper had been a kid, really…in a desperate situation. His father had been caught embezzling money, had killed himself, and had left his family destitute. Carol Preston had promised to take care of them…all they had to do was Time Travel. “It sounded like an adventure” he admitted. 

So Rittenhouse took care of him and his family in exchange for him living in the past for a few years - to do their bidding…this guy claimed he had no idea what that bidding was before he signed on, but hey, it was a job that provided security for his family – he wasn’t going to ask questions. 

Wyatt was completely floored by this admission. It meant that Rittenhouse wasn’t just a bunch of elitist dicks running around trying to change the world by promoting the agendas of other elitist dicks. They were actively recruiting grunts to do their dirty work, promising them God knows what to leave their life, jump in a time machine and disappear into history. Grunts like this poor desperate sap sitting before him. Grunts like a dirt poor family from West Texas. 

Is that what happened with Jessica’s family?

“Why did they bring my wife back?” Wyatt wanted an answer and he wanted it now, but if he had expected any stunning revelation as to the why from the sleeper, he was going to be grossly disappointed. The sleeper claimed not to know. Wyatt figured as much, considering this guy had been living in the past for heaven knows how long, but that didn’t keep him from giving the jackass a nice beating – the dude was still Rittenhouse and Wyatt hated the lot of them. 

Wyatt was determined to get to the bottom of this mess. Rittenhouse brought back Jessica…he was certain of that now, but why? Why did they bring her back? What did they offer her and her family? Did it have to do with her brother? These were the questions burning inside his head as they left 1981 and hurtled back to the present. 

This debrief was more emotional than usual, as Agent Christopher expressed her gratitude towards each and every one of them for saving her life and steering the course for her future. Wyatt hung back as she hugged Lucy and Jiya, hands in his pockets, focused on what he needed to say. 

Agent Christopher turned to him and closed the door, knowing by just his look that he needed to talk with her. “Well, spit it out Sergeant, what have you found out?”

As Wyatt related to her all that he had discovered within the past day or so, she sat at her makeshift desk, brows furrowed and lips pursed. When Wyatt revealed to her what the Rittenhouse sleeper’s motivation was, she stopped him “Wait, I thought, Rittenhouse was solely based on lineage? All that bloodline crap they’re always spewing?” 

“I did too, ma’am – it’s why they were so damned determined to keep Lucy, they view her as some kind of royalty.” Wyatt scoffed. As if Lucy could even be compared to those jerks –she was the most kind and selfless person he knew, NOTHING like those Rittenhouse bastards. “But if this guy was telling the truth, ma’am – they are recruiting desperate people for desperate missions and well, knowing that, I…I can’t rule out that Jessica…this Jessica, anyway, isn’t one of them. Her brother was supposed to die of leukemia, but he’s alive and well and her dirt poor family is doing pretty dang well too.” 

“I see” Agent Christopher folded her hands together, leaned back in her chair and seemed to be searching for answers in the ceiling of the bunker. “This is very serious, Wyatt. She can’t stay here – it’s too dangerous, but I can’t just let her go, because she knows where the bunker is. Even with our security measures and the additional protections I’ve put in place, we can’t underestimate Rittenhouse. I can’t put her into custody, because I have nothing to charge her with… a few pictures hardly makes her eligible for incarceration.” 

“What if we can convince her to go into some sort of protective custody? She won’t have to know that we are suspicious of her, it can all be suggested as a benefit to her – give her a chance to get back outside to the real world.”

Agent Christopher considered Wyatt’s suggestion. “That could work, if you can convince her to do that. I can put a guard on her 24/7, monitor her phone lines and if she does anything remotely out of line or unusual, we would be alerted right away.”

Wyatt was kicking himself. It was his recklessness that had brought them to this point. His Jessica was not this Jessica, he knew that. But still, it was a version of Jessica and here he was clandestinely discussing putting her under house arrest for fear that she was some sort of terrorist/sleeper cell agent. If he had just ignored that text..if he had waited and discussed with Agent Christopher…with Lucy, he might have been made to see the danger signs. Instead, he ran out headlong into the unknown and now they were all in deep shit because of it. 

If he was nervous before about approaching Jessica with questions regarding her past, he was terrified now. He knocked on their door before entering this time. A few moments later, the door cracked open and there was Jessica smiling bemusedly at him. 

“Why are you knocking, Wyatt? This is OUR room, ya know”

“Oh, I just didn’t want to disturb you if you were sleeping…or ya know still had a headache.” 

“So you knocked?” she laughed at him, stepping aside to let him and closing the door behind him. 

“Look, Jessica, I’m sorry about the other night. I know this is all strange for you too and I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. This whole thing is just bizarre…for both of us.” Wyatt was desperately trying to keep his voice in check. 

“I know, Wyatt and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten upset. It’s just really hard not to these days.” She looked at him expectantly. 

“Yeah, living in this damned bunker puts everyone on edge.” He answered as he sat next to her on the cot. “I was thinking that maybe this whole living arrangement has been too hard on you.” She looked up at him curiously. “I was talking with Agent Christopher and she thinks she can get you situated in a safe house with round the clock security – you’d be able to go outside, go to work, live your life…you wouldn’t be stuck living in a hell hole with no hot water and no privacy.” 

Jessica considered him for a moment and then rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? Are you really freaking serious? So what? You bring me down here to spend time with you, make up for lost time and now you’re tossing me out to the curb?”

“No, Jess – that’s not it at..”

She interrupted, “The hell it is – I see how you look at her.” Wyatt froze. “Don’t deny it, Wyatt. I know you love her. Damnit, I knew that before I agreed to give you a second chance, I must have been so stupid to believe for one minute that any of that shit she told me about how much you fought to get me back was true.” Wyatt’s guilt was threatening to consume him. 

“Jess, that was all true…I stole the damn LifeBoat to try and get you back.” Wyatt’s emotions had reached the boiling point now. “And yes, I do love Lucy. You have to understand that you were…”

“Dead…yeah, I know Wyatt, you’ve told me.” She was shooting daggers at him now. “I guess you just want me out of here so you can mess around behind my back without having to wait for a mission to come along so you two can be alone.”

“No, Jessica…listen. I’m trying to do the right thing here…that’s all I’ve been trying to do since I got your damn text.” 

“Oh I’m sorry that I ruined your affair, Wyatt.” She was glaring at him with her arms crossed standing on the other side of the room, but she might as well as slapped him in the face with how those words stung. “But ya know, from the looks of it, she’s had no problem moving on from you – she’s awfully chummy with that Flynn guy. Didn’t she spend the night in his room? Maybe that’s why she went out of her way to convince me to stay – she already had your replacement lined up.” 

“Jessica” – he breathed out, painfully. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I’m tired of the lies, Wyatt. I’m tired of the secrets. You bring me down here and hide me away for my ‘safety’ and now you’re kicking us out.” Tears were falling from her eyes now, and Wyatt couldn’t help but cross the room and hug her. Maybe he had gotten it all wrong. Maybe she really was innocent in all of this and Rittenhouse was just screwing with his head. 

“Jessica, I swear, I never meant to hurt you…ever” his voice was faltering. “But this move out of the bunker it’s for the best…and I’m sorry if you thought that I would be able to come with you, but I can’t….the nature of this job…the demands…you’d have to go alone, but I promise you, you’ll be safe.” 

“That’s not what I meant when I said us” Jessica started. Wyatt looked up at her curiously. “I’m  
pregnant.”


	5. Chapter 5

Those two words shot through Wyatt like an icy blast. Hadn’t they been careful? Hadn’t they said they were going to put their marriage first and work on that before even thinking about having a family? Didn’t they both agree that Wyatt’s job and the unpredictability of time travel and timelines made this a bad idea? 

Jessica’s lower lip was quivering, tears streaming down her face as she looked at him. “You want to abandon us” she whispered. 

“No, no Jess – I swear.” And he meant it – he may be lots of things, but one thing he swore he would never be is a world class sonofabitch like his dad. As much as he loved Lucy, as much as he feared this unknown Jessica, he had made his bed and now he was going to have to lie in it. She was pregnant and he would do everything in his power to make sure she and that baby were safe. Rittenhouse be damned. He could protect her…he’s been protecting his whole damn team for almost two years now, she would just fall under that umbrella. He hugged her tight to his chest and she sobbed into it uncontrollably. 

The next morning Agent Christopher had already briefed Lucy, Rufus and Jiya on the suspicions involving Jessica and her Rittenhouse ties by the time Wyatt arrived in the common area. They each glanced at him apprehensively. He looked tense, defensive and a bit angry. 

“Wyatt, I’ve just finished briefing the team, do we have a plan of action? Did you talk to Jessica?” Agent Christopher asked. 

He shot a cautious glance around the room, carefully avoiding Lucy’s sympathetic eyes. “Yeah, we talked.” He said shortly. 

Wyatt was a mad mix of feelings. He was a man divided. His loyalty and dedication to the team required him to take the necessary precautions to protect them from the threat of Rittenhouse. If that threat was Jessica, then he had failed them by bringing her into the bunker. He didn’t deserve to be responsible for their protection anymore. Then there was Lucy. God, he loved her. But now that Jessica was pregnant, he knew that any chance that they had at reconciling was gone. She would insist that he stay with his family and well, no matter how he felt about Lucy, he knew that he would have to do the right thing by Jessica and his baby. If Jessica was mixed up with Rittenhouse, he had a duty to her, as her husband, to protect her from those assholes and whatever threats they had issued to her and her family. Carrying his child made that obligation all the more vital. He would never allow his child to be mixed up in that crazy ass cult. No, he had spent most of the night awake, thinking about what he needed to do and while he wasn’t happy about it, he knew he had no one to blame but himself. 

No one said anything for what felt like an eternity. The stillness making the awkwardness of the situation all the more uncomfortable. Finally Rufus broke the silence with a drawn out “And?” 

“And, she’s not going anywhere…not without me anyway. So if you want to chuck her out, then you’re going to have to get rid of me too.” Wyatt said matter of factly. 

“Wyatt” Agent Christopher, piped in – “need I remind you that this Jessica is not the same Jessica you knew in your timeline? That you, yourself told me that she isn’t anything like the Jessica you knew and loved. Rittenhouse is a very real threat and I’m sorry, Wyatt but we need to assess this situation with Jessica in the same vein. We have more than enough reason to suspect…”

“If she was a threat then why hasn’t she done anything to hurt anybody yet? Huh? Hell, how many times has she had the opportunity to kill any of us? She hasn’t – she could be a victim in all of this – we don’t know.”

“Wyatt, we need to think in terms of security here. I would rather us be overly cautious than run the risk of..”

“She’s pregnant.” Wyatt shouted. The air seemed to be sucked out of the room. Lucy blanched. Rufus instinctively reached out and held her hand. “So if you’re going to get rid of her, you’re going to have to get rid of me.” And with that he walked out of the room full of self-reproach and regret. 

The mothership had jumped to 1863 – threatening a raid led by Harriet Tubman. As the team assembled, Agent Christopher took Wyatt aside, “Wyatt, we don’t want to lose you – you are a valuable member of this team…but you need to take your personal feelings out of this and focus on the mission…not just this mission – the mission as whole…the mission of stopping Rittenhouse.” 

“Just make sure she’s still here when I get back.” He turned on his heel and clambered into the LifeBoat, hoping to hell that he could look Lucy in the eye again someday. 

She was quiet…but he could tell, not long after they arrived that she was forming a whole conversation in that brain of hers. He tried very hard to avoid her sideways glances, her hesitating steps and her imploring eyes. He had broken heart again, he knew and he could not forgive himself. But Lucy wasn’t having it. She approached him cautiously and finally blurted out “Wyatt, Agent Christopher is just trying to protect us. I think you need to cut her a little slack and look at this from a different perspective.” 

“Lucy, what if Jessica is innocent in all of this?” He spat out a little more roughly than he had intended. “What if she’s being monitored by Rittenhouse and she has no damn idea? We’re treating her like the enemy and she’s could very well be a victim. She didn’t ask to get brought back” 

“But Wyatt, you said yourself – the other night – you were so sure that something was wrong. I mean, isn’t it possible that Rittenhouse brought her back to…I don’t know…threaten the team in some way like Agent Christopher said?”

Wyatt finally looked up to Lucy’s face. The kindness and sympathy in her eyes overwhelmed him. How could she even look at him, talk to him after everything he had put her through? He felt his heart soften as he remembered their last conversation. “Lucy, if Jessica is Rittenhouse…if she’s a threat…then what the hell am I doing here? I have no business being here protecting any of you when I put you into harm’s way. I mean, if my wife is a damn sleeper agent, what the hell does that make me?”

Lucy gaped at him, hardly believing that he hadn’t considered that she understood more than anyone a little of what he was feeling. “Wyatt, my mother is running Rittenhouse. I AM Rittenhouse. All of these things that are happening, that we’re dealing with - are because of my family.” 

“No, Luc..” Wyatt reached out to touch her arm, but she pushed past him and kept on talking. 

“They brought Jessica back –they don’t just do things out of the kindness of their hearts. They did it to hurt you, to hurt us.” She turned back to look at him, sadness etched all over her face. “I don’t know if Jessica is involved or not, but if we’re going to be blaming anybody for this situation, blame my family – blame Rittenhouse – don’t blame yourself – you didn’t ask for this to happen.” 

Wyatt didn’t say anything for a while, he was kicking himself for being a complete ass. How could he not have considered Lucy’s feelings when discussing Jessica’s apparent ties to Rittenhouse? He hadn’t realized how self-conscious Lucy felt about her family ties to the organization that had caused them all so much grief. He wanted to make her understand that no one held her Rittenhouse ties against her, you can’t choose your family after all. Hell, Wyatt understood that – his dad wasn’t exactly a role model. Rittenhouse may have brought Jessica back, but it was Wyatt who brought her into their lives, into that bunker. “Lucy” Wyatt hesitated. “I should’ve talked to you first. I should’ve…before I left, after I got that text. None of this would be happening now if I had just..”

“No one blames you for going after Jessica, Wyatt – least of all me. I can’t even imagine what I would do if Amy called me out of the blue.” Lucy came over to stand in front of him now, her hand on his arm. “And I know I wouldn’t be thinking of some ulterior motive. I would just be so happy to have her back.” 

Wyatt couldn’t speak, so he just nodded. He absolutely didn’t deserve Lucy Preston’s goodness and understanding. She was a damn saint. She gave him strength of a different kind, she made him see things in ways he had never considered. 

“And…now” she continued, not looking at him “with – with her back and well, this new development…” She couldn’t bring herself to say pregnancy. “Anyone can see that you have an interest in keeping your fa..family together and safe.” She sighed, swallowed hard and blinked back tears. “And that is what Agent Christopher wants. She wants all of us safe, Jessica included. IF she is…well…you know, she’s going to need more care and..”  
“If?” He asked the question quietly, almost to himself. “Wait a minute, if? You think she might be lying about being pregnant?” 

Lucy flinched at the word. “Wyatt, I don’t know what to think” she said resolutely. “But if Rittenhouse is involved, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. My mother lied to me my whole life and I trusted her completely – I never would’ve dreamed”…she broke off, her voice choked with emotion. 

She took a deep breath, “It makes sick to even think about all the lies that were fed to me. My mother groomed me, trained me since birth – wanting me to follow in her footsteps and all I wanted to do was make her proud. It was never about me, it was about always about Rittenhouse.” She gritted her teeth “About taking my rightful place. That first mission, it wasn’t about Flynn….it was about her changing her own history…no cancer..and Amy, well she was just expendable.” Lucy blinked back more tears and clasped her hand tightly around her locket. “All I’m saying is that we have to question everything when it comes to them – nothing is beneath them.” 

Wyatt could not believe that any version of Jessica would lie to him about being pregnant. It would be too cruel. He thought about his Jessica, all those years ago, right after they had gotten married talking about the boy she hoped they’d have. Her eyes had misted over and she had smiled at him in a way that took his breath away. No, Rittenhouse or not – Jessica couldn’t…wouldn’t lie to him about that – would she? 

In an attempt to redeem himself or Jessica…possibly both from the mounting feelings of doubt, Wyatt argued. “Lucy, like you said you didn’t have any idea that you were Rittenhouse…maybe…maybe that’s the same for Jess. Maybe she’s doesn’t know.” 

He knew before the words were out of his mouth that that was completely ridiculous. Lucy and Jessica’s situations were totally different. Jessica didn’t come from a long line of pedigree like the Preston’s and the Cahill’s. Her family was too poor and too blue-collar to be lifelong members of an artistocratic secret organization. No, he knew, dammit, that if she was involved it was because they had sought her family out – they had made a deal – which made her a knowing and most likely willing, participant. Wyatt looked at Lucy with a pained expression on his face, he knew he was in denial and judging from the sad look Lucy was giving him, he could tell she thought he was too. 

Lucy didn’t argue, she just gave him a sympathetic head nod and said “Maybe.” 

He was about to leave when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a tight embrace. It had been so long since he had any kind of contact like that with her and it sent a life-giving jolt through him. His heart had been ripped to shreds – as had hers – over these past few weeks and this, this hug was like a soothing balm over their battered souls. He pulled her in tighter. Time seemed to stand still. Her breathed in her soft hair and was immediately transported to a happier time, a simpler time in 1941 when it had just been the two of them. He didn’t want to let her go, this embrace meant everything to him. He had done so much to hurt her, Rittenhouse had just about destroyed her, yet Lucy Preston still managed to reach into her heart and find something worth saving in him. Some redeemable quality of which he was completely ignorant.


	6. Chapter 6

After a more than successful mission, they returned to the present. Wyatt knew, after his conversation with Lucy that he had misplaced his loyalty. Lucy loved her mother, she believed in family – but when that family turned out to be part of an evil organization hell-bent on world-domination, she stuck by her principles and devoted herself to her new family. Her bunker family. The Time Team. 

Wyatt could do nothing less. This Jessica was not his Jessica, no matter how much it hurt him to admit it. Wyatt still wasn’t sure how deeply she was in with Rittenhouse, but he knew that there wasn’t any use in denying that she was involved with them. He could and would try to get her to change sides, just as Lucy had done with her mother…but ultimately, his faith and devotion would remain with the people he was responsible for protecting. 

He found Jessica sitting at one of the tables in the common area when they arrived back from 1863. She gave him a sappy smile and then cast a sidelong glance at Agent Christopher. “I need to talk to you” she muttered and then led the way to their shared space. 

When they entered their room and closed the door, she turned to Wyatt and whined, “Agent Christopher told me that for the health of the baby I needed to leave the bunker. How could you tell her about this baby without asking me first?” 

Wyatt remembered his conversation with Lucy and the doubt she had expressed about Jess’s pregnancy. He steeled himself for the conflicting emotions that were sure to rise within him…he couldn’t believe that any version of Jessica would lie to him about being pregnant, but he knew that he had to tread carefully here, thankfully Agent Christopher had given him an opening. “Well, Jess think about it – you’re going to need frequent care, pre-natal checks, and God-forbid if something is wrong, you’ll need better access to medical are than we can provide here.” 

Jessica gaped at him, “And where the hell are you going to be during all of this? Living here with her?” 

Wyatt looked Jessica directly in the eyes “Jessica, this is about doing the right thing for this baby. I will try to make it to every appointment, but you know the nature of this mission – it’s unpredictable and so I can’t promise much – but I can promise you that you will be safe.” He took a deep breath – here went nothing. “Jessica, what do you know about Rittenhouse?”

Jessica absolutely started. “What do you mean, what do I know about Rittenhouse? I hear you guys talking about them like they are some kind of evil organization – sounds pretty much like something out of a bad spy movie – it’s kind of hard to believe.”

Wyatt swallowed hard and said “Yes, I know it is – I didn’t believe they existed at first either but they do and they are evil.” He gave her a knowing, penetrating stare. “They’re all about world domination and they don’t care who they have to hurt, kill or lie to in order to make that happen. But there’s always a choice, Jess. Lucy made that choice, the right choice…to fight them.” 

Jessica looked completely betrayed, “Well good for her. What does that have to do with me?”

Wyatt studied her face – there was no fear in her eyes, no guilt…just anger. He began to doubt his suspicions again, so he changed tactics. “It has everything to do with you..and me…and all of us.” Her eyes flickered to the floor for a moment, before holding his gaze again. “Rittenhouse affects us all and because I’m involved with the effort to stop them, they will stop at nothing to hurt me and everyone else in this bunker…including you. That means that you have to fight them with us, especially if you stay here.

Jessica began to back away from him, “I’m no soldier. I’m…I’m pregnant – what can I do? I’m not like you, I’m not like them.” She pointed towards the door of the bunker, indicating the rest of the team. 

Wyatt took her hands in his and pulled her back towards him, “You can stay safe for the baby. Go to the safe house, Jessica. You will be given 24/7 protection and I’ll be able to visit as often as I can.”

She looked at him wistfully, “Why can’t you just leave this behind? Come with us? We can be a family. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

Wyatt braced himself for the barrage of emotions he felt building in his chest. He had to do it, he had to be honest with her and with himself. “Jess, I won’t lie to you. I am in love with Lucy. I know I asked you for a second chance, but this…this isn’t working. I’m living a lie. I don’t know you anymore – your past is not the one I remember. I’ve missed out on six years of our marriage – six years that were full of grief and pain for both of us, though for very different reasons. I moved on. I wanted to do the right thing, when I found out you were alive, but now I know I’ve only hurt both of you and I never wanted to do that.” He placed his hand on her cheek as a tear rolled down her face. “I will never abandon you or our baby, you will always mean so much to me, but this – this mission, it’s what I’m meant to do.”

Jessica sighed and grabbed the hand Wyatt held to her face. She gave him a sad smile and said “For what it’s worth, I kind of felt bad. Lucy is apparently the one responsible for the mighty change wrought within you…I certainly don’t recognize you anymore. You’re a changed man, Wyatt Logan…and it’s nice to see.” He smiled at her. “I’ll go to the safe house tomorrow, okay? But can you and I have dinner together in here tonight, just the two of us? I just don’t want our last night together to be sitting in a common dining room listening to Star Wars vs Star Trek debates. 

Wyatt laughed. “Sure thing.” He gave Jessica a hug and then left the room. He had to inform Agent Christopher about Jessica’s agreement to go to the safe house and arrange for her travel and then he was going to make dinner for everyone – his heart felt a million times lighter than it had felt it weeks. If Jessica was Rittenhouse, it didn’t matter anymore. She would be in a safe house under surveillance…for her own protection and for the protection of the team. There was nothing that she could do to hurt them at the safe house and Rittenhouse couldn’t hurt her. He never thought that he would be relieved to end his marriage with Jessica, but the prospect of starting a new life with Lucy, made him happier than he ever had been in his life. He had loved Jessica, but his love for Lucy was something he had never experienced. If Jessica was the lightening bolt, Lucy was the avalanche – he was completely swallowed up in his love for her – it had inched into every crevice of his heart and soul until he was totally consumed by it. He didn’t feel like he deserved her in the slightest, but if he had to spend the rest of his life proving himself to her, he would.


	7. Chapter 7

Wyatt pulled himself awake from a deep sleep. He was unbelievably tired and slightly confused. It took him a moment to take in his surroundings. He was in the bunker. It had to be the middle of the night…but something felt wrong…out of place. Why was he so tired? 

Turning over, he saw that Jessica’s cot was empty. Wyatt prided himself on being a light sleeper, so the fact that she had left the room without his knowledge, unnerved him a bit. He was a soldier after all, and his job in this bunker was to protect his team. Disturbances in the dead of night were supposed to alert him..and from the feel of the empty cot beside him, Jessica had been out of bed for a while. Where did she go? He got to his feet, swaying slightly as the excess of grogginess dulled his senses and screwed with his balance. What the hell? Wyatt braced himself against the wall and attempted to shake the sleep from his head. He had been tired, sure…but this was odd. 

He made his way out of the bunker room and headed towards the common area. Right away, he noticed that something was not right. He could hear mechanical whirrings and beeps that usually accompanied a launch. He hadn’t heard the alarms indicating the mothership had jumped, so why the hell would the LifeBoat be running at this time of night? Surely Rufus and Jiya weren’t screwing around with it – especially since Lucy sleeps out on the couch. 

He was suddenly filled with a sense of dread. Something was definitely wrong. Neither of them would intrude on Lucy’s sleep like that. 

Unless she’s sleeping in Flynn’s room again. That thought didn’t comfort him either.

As he turned the corner, his suspicions were confirmed. The LifeBoat was alive with activity and he could see Jiya working the controls. 

“Jiya! What the hell are you doing?” – Wyatt called out. 

Jiya had only just turned a tear stained face to him when Jessica appeared at the hatch holding a gun to Lucy’s head. “Don’t come any closer, Wyatt.” She said cooly. 

“Jessica?! what are you doing?” Panic was rising in Wyatt’s chest as he stood looking up at Lucy’s pale face, her eyes closed, tears streaking her cheeks. 

She laughed at him – a cold, malicious laugh. It made Wyatt’s hair stand on end. “I’ve got a mission too, Wyatt. I’ve got to take the princess here to her mother and Jiya here is going to drive us. Let’s see, capture Lucy Preston, steal the LifeBoat and recruit a new pilot? I’m going to be rewarded quite nicely for a job well done.”

Wyatt ran towards the stairs leading to the Lifeboat hatch. “Jessica! Don’t do this – you have a choice, Jessica. Whatever they have on you we can protect you! They can’t hurt you. Think of the baby!”

Jessica pulled Lucy’s hair yanking her head back further as she pointed the gun now at Wyatt, laughing hysterically as she did so – Lucy whimpered. “Oh, Wyatt..you are so damn gullible. It was almost too easy. There’s no baby. I thought that maybe I could convince you to abandon the team, leaving them vulnerable on the next jump. The mission was clear, separate the two of you and get Lucy to Carol. If possible, put the LifeBoat out of commission. When I knew I was running out of time, I decided to just steal it altogether. Jiya made it easy, sitting here working on her visions…Carol and Nicholas are gonna love hearing about those too – I’m sure we can use them to our advantage somehow.” 

Wyatt was sick. “Jessica” he said more forcefully, “you don’t have to do this – whatever it is they have against you, we can fight them.”

“Rittenhouse? You want me to fight against Rittenhouse? They saved my brother and apparently they saved me too. Why wouldn’t I choose them…over this? Living in a hellhole like a rat? Barely scraping by on military pay and bar tips? You think that’s a life that I want to lead? God, I’m so glad I’m not actually a bartender…all of those years undercover start weighing on you after a while.” 

“Jess, please, please don’t do this.”

“Christ…I should’ve doubled that dose of Dramamine I gave you last night at dinner. I hate good-byes.” And with that she closed the hatch to the time machine. 

Full-blown panic engulfed Wyatt now. He ran up the steps as the LifeBoat blasted away and he was sent flying through the air across the Silo landing in a sprawled heap on the concrete floor. 

He was vaguely aware of the commotion and voices that surrounded him in the moments that followed the time machine’s unexpected departure. Snippets of “Where’s the LifeBoat?” “Where’s Jiya?” echoing off the now empty space in the Silo. Agent Christopher was standing in front of him now, bending over to look at the dazed look on his face. “Wyatt! Wyatt! Can you hear me? What happened?”

Wyatt groaned. It was his fault. He had let his damn guard down and she manipulated him. He felt broken. “Jessica” was all he managed to get out. 

“Wait a minute, are you telling me that Jessica took the LifeBoat? How?” she asked. 

“Jiya.” Wyatt gasped out. The wind had been completely knocked out of him and he was having trouble speaking.

“Rufus, I need you to see if you can track the LifeBoat’s location – we need to see if we can find where they went. If they are in the present day, we can send a team to rescue Jiya. Somebody go wake Lucy and let her know what happened, we need all hands on deck” 

At this, Wyatt nearly fell apart. Flynn rounded on him. “Wyatt, where is Lucy?” 

Wyatt managed to stand up and brace himself with the staircase that had also been blown across the bunker. Tears stung his eyes and his voice cracked, “Jessica took her too. Took her to Rittenhouse – to her mother.” 

Rufus left the control panel in Mason’s capable hands and rounded on Wyatt. “Are you saying that your wife was a Rittenhouse spy? That she kidnapped Jiya AND Lucy? We had pictures. We had those pictures proving that she was with Rittenhouse and we didn’t do a DAMN thing!!”

“Whoa, whoa whoa…why didn’t anyone tell me about these pictures?” Flynn asked.

Wyatt could take Rufus’ anger, but he could not take it from Flynn. It was bad enough that Flynn, the guy no one could possibly trust, was more trustworthy in this situation than Wyatt – Wyatt who had brought the spy into the bunker. “Because, Flynn…no one trusted that you wouldn’t try to kill her when you found out.”

“Well, in hindsight would that have been such a bad idea? You brought her down here, she screwed you, lied about being pregnant so she could stay here and screw us too.” Flynn yelled. 

At this, Wyatt had had enough. He flew at Garcia Flynn with all the frustration, anger, self-reproach and anxiety he had been feeling over the past few weeks. He charged at him wildly, fists flying and jaw clenched. It took the remaining team members to pull Wyatt away and Denise Christopher’s gun to keep him from going back for Round Two. 

“You don’t help anybody by fighting with Garcia Flynn, Wyatt. If we want to get Lucy and Jiya back we need to work together. Is that clear?” Denise Christopher shouted. 

‘Yes, ma’am.” Wyatt said as he wiped the blood from his split lip. 

 

The LifeBoat materialized in the midst of a series of warehouses. As the hatch opened, Jessica pushed Lucy and Jiya out towards the Rittenhouse members anxiously awaiting their arrival, namely Carol Preston and Nicholas Keynes. 

“Lucy, thank God you are alright” Carol Preston hugged her daughter. “I’ve been so worried about you. You have no idea how hard it’s been to ensure your safety when you insist on putting yourself into danger.” 

“Really mom? Because the last time I saw you you were accusing me of witchcraft and sending me to the gallows. How exactly was that ensuring my safety?

“I gave you a dagger, didn’t I? And yet you chose to abandon your legacy once again and left me waiting for you at the Mothership while you went off with your little friends. Lucy,” she whispered now, “I thought that by bringing Jessica back you would see that that soldier’s interest in you was fleeting, that you would come to your senses. This is where you belong” 

Lucy glared at her mother. ‘You have lied to me my entire life, mom and you have done more to hurt me than he ever did.” 

Carol Preston took a deep breath and grasped Lucy by the shoulders. “You weren’t ready the first time, but you will be ready now. You will see how important you are and what being a part of Rittenhouse truly means.” She stepped to the side of Lucy, removing one of her arms from her shoulders, hugging her close to her side walking her over to Nicholas. “It’s time you two were formally acquainted. This, Lucy, is your great grandfather, Nicholas Keynes.” Lucy started at the name - The manifesto author. “You may remember him as the soldier you helped save in 1918. Nicholas, this is your great-granddaughter, Lucy.”

“I’m delighted to finally meet you.” He shook her hand. “I must say that you have caused far more problems for us than we would have liked, but I’m confidant that given the right motivation, you can be swayed to see things from our point of view. Your mother recently reminded me how important our legacy is - what it means to us…to Rittenhouse. You only need a little push in the right direction. Blood is thicker than water, or so they say. You will come to embrace your true self and take your rightful place among us.”

Lucy scoffed. “I will never be one of you.”

“Oh my dear,” Nicholas answerd. “you already are. You just haven’t learned your role yet.” 

Carol turned her attention to Jessica and Jiya. “Thank you, Jessica for bringing her home to me. Heaven knows you’ve been more successful on your mission than Emma has been on all of hers with all of that gun-wielding and street fighting. I see a bright future for you. Your family will be so proud that you have more than lived up to your potential.

“Thank you, ma’am”. 

“And you must be Jiya. We’ve heard quite a lot about you. You are a capable pilot which means you are quite valuable to us. We have Emma, of course, but it’s always nice to have a backup. We expect your full cooperation. Work with us, and you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams”. She turned again to her daughter, “Lucy, your good behavior will benefit your friend here. As long as you do what we ask you, she will be treated like any other member of our organization.” She lowered her voice to a dangerous level. “Pull another stunt like you did in 1918, and I’m afraid I will not be able to protect her…or you.” 

So that’s what the plan was. They couldn’t break Lucy with the “deaths” of her friends, it had only strengthened her resolve, so now they were going to use Jiya as leverage. Lucy and Jiya exchanged horrified looks. 

“Ma’am” Jessica piped up “while I was staying in the bunker I became privy to some vital information concerning our new asset.” She pointed at Jiya. “She has visions and just today she met with Stanley Fisher, a former pilot, and from what I understand, she can learn to control them and visit points of time with her mind.”

Carol Preston raised her eyebrows and took a greater interest in Jiya, gripping her chin. “Well now, that is fascinating. I think we can certainly use that to our advantage.” She looked over at Nicholas who nodded in agreement. 

“You bitch! I thought we were friends! You told me you were worried about me….I shouldn’t have told you anything.” Jiya sobbed yanking her face out of Carol Preston’s grip. She was staring daggers at Jessica, who looked completely unphased by Jiya’s outburst. 

“Some rest, I think, is in order. You’ve had a trying night and there’s really no need to keep you out here in the night air. You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep….and we’ll make sure you get that good night’s sleep” Carol Preston smiled and then nodded to two very large security goons and Jiya and Lucy were dragged off to two separate holding areas. 

Emma Whitmore stepped out of the shadows as Carol, Nicholas and Jessica celebrated their victory over the thorn in their side that was the so-called Time Team. Emma offered to kill the recent captors but was quickly rebuffed. Why would they want to kill Lucy? Why would they want to kill Jiya – a capable pilot who could “help” Emma especially now that they had the LifeBoat? Emma was feeling the slip of her influence over the powers that be – hadn’t she sacrificed enough for Rittenhouse? Hadn’t she fought and killed for them – hell, hadn’t she fought against the precious Lucy Preston who was forever thwarting their plans? Yet here they were again, dismissing her and coddling Lucy because she was family. Emma appreciated all that Rittenhouse had done for her, but she also knew that she was going to have to act in her own self-interest if she was going to be as powerful as she knew she could become. Lucy was a danger to Rittenhouse, Carol Preston was too blinded by motherly devotion and bloodlines to see it. Maybe she was jealous of Lucy with all of her “royal Rittenhouse” blood – God, what she wouldn’t give to have the entitlement Lucy had and didn’t appreciate – but it didn’t matter, Emma was determined to prove herself as more than worthy of recognition. She had devoted her life to Rittenhouse and she would protect it and its overall mission even if it meant taking out a princess or two.


	8. Chapter 8

Lucy paced in her tiny room. Who was she kidding? This was no room, it was a cell, a closet. A twin bed wedged into a small space. Her mother knew her struggles with claustrophobia, this was no oversight. Last time, she had been granted every imaginable luxury…well, every luxury you can have when you’re being held against your will. Her meals were brought to her on a tray with fresh flowers, she was able to read the paper, read books, her room was comfortable and airy. This time, it seemed they were prepared to break her, more than she already was. Bringing Jessica into their lives had started Lucy on an emotional downhill spiral and that had been the plan. Keep Wyatt distracted and away from her, break her down emotionally and then bring her back into the Rittenhouse fold so that they could continue her grooming. The tiny room, the hard mattress, using Jiya as leverage – her safety and security tied to Lucy’s cooperation – all of this was designed to break Lucy down and rebuild her in their image.

Lucy was almost resigned to just let them. She was tired. She was hurt. She was broken. They would never leave her alone and as she sat by herself in that dark cell, she thought about how much pain and suffering her friends had gone through because of her...because of her family. 

Jiya was a prisoner – her fate tied to Lucy’s willingness to comply. Rufus had been directly threatened by her own father and now his entire family thought he was dead…his girlfriend kidnapped. Conner had lost everything, his company, his employees, his billions, his reputation. Agent Christopher had been kidnapped by Lucy’s mother and her family threatened. Hell, Flynn’s family was murdered by Rittenhouse. And then there was Wyatt, who was thrust into an emotional manipulation for the ages just because he was too close to Lucy. 

Tears were streaming down Lucy’s face now. She wondered for a moment if it would have been better if Rufus and Wyatt hadn’t found her in 1918. Wouldn’t they all be better off? Jessica would never have been brought back to betray them and break Wyatt’s heart, Jiya would be safe, and without her, maybe Rittenhouse would’ve left them all alone. Maybe if she would have been successful in blowing up the Mothership, Rittenhouse wouldn’t be a threat and they could’ve gone back to their families and their normal lives …whatever normal is these days. 

She was jarred from these unhappy thoughts by a commotion outside her door. She could hear Emma angrily addressing her mother. “I told you it was too risky. You should’ve just let me kill her when she was brought in.”

“You were supposed to be guarding the Lifeboat, Emma. Any failure in keeping it here rests with you.” Carol snapped back. 

Lucy’s door opened and standing before her were two armed guards, her mother and Emma Whitmore. She blinked at the sudden brightness that filled the tiny room. “Is it time for my bathroom break?” 

Carol tilted her head and looked at her daughter with a smirk. “Your friend Jiya was a bit more of a handful than we had anticipated. She managed to escape her room and leave in the Lifeboat.” Lucy’s heart leapt, she bowed her head and closed her eyes in gratitude. Jiya was safe – they couldn’t use Jiya against her anymore. “We’re not taking any chances with you. Your return to us was our top priority, but we are going to be making every effort to find and destroy the LifeBoat so that we can complete our missions unhindered and change the world. Your friends have been a thorn in our side for far too long. Now that Jessica knows the location of your bunker we can assess the security protocols Agent Christopher has in place and…ah, return the visit that solder so kindly paid to us. With you safely back with us, we can move forward with our retaliation without needlessly risking your life.” 

Lucy’s heart dropped into her stomach. “Why are you telling me this?” 

“Because sweetheart, I want you to understand how futile your resistance is. It’s childish. There is no escaping your legacy. Once we have the LifeBoat back there will be no one to stand in our way…we’ll make doubly sure of that this time. No one will be escaping that bunker. Jessica had plenty of opportunity to do reconnaissance on that front – her plans have given us a very good read out of what we’ll be dealing with when we get there. Your friends will have no place to hide.” At that moment, one of the guards grabbed Lucy’s arm pulled out a hypodermic needle. 

Lucy attempted to yank her arm away, only to have the grasp on it tightened further. She let out a cry. “What are you doing? What is that?”

“Now be calm, dear. This is just a sedative to help you sleep. The pill we gave Jiya wasn’t strong enough, apparently and so we want to make sure you are nicely rested.” Carol Preston nodded at the guard who injected Lucy. The effect was almost instantaneous. The guard threw Lucy’s arm back at her as she nearly collapsed sideways onto the cot. Carol entered the small room and picked up Lucy’s legs from the floor, tucking them into the covers on the cot. 

Lucy looked up at her mother, pleading as she tucked her into her tiny bed. “Mom…please…don’t”

Carol shushed Lucy and smoothed her hair away from her face. “Lucy, this is for the best, you’ll see.” She patted Lucy’s cheek lightly and left her in darkness once more. 

 

The mood in the bunker was subdued at best. Rufus was furious with Wyatt. Wyatt was furious with himself. Mason was desperately trying to track the whereabouts of either the Lifeboat or the Mothership so that they could plan a rescue. Flynn was wishing he had known about those Rittenhouse files so that he could have personally dragged Jessica and Wyatt out of the bunker before they could endanger the team anymore. Agent Christopher was worried. Very worried. 

“Do we have any leads yet, Conner?” she asked sighing heavily. 

“Nothing. We can only narrow it down to a 50 mile radius and well, they could be anywhere. Our next hope is that we find something on those hard drives we acquired. Maybe a location that they could be using as a base of operations since we raided their headquarters.” 

“I’ll look into that – let me grab my laptop and I’ll start trying to break the encryption on some of those files” Rufus piped up. He needed something to occupy his mind other than Jiya in the hands of Rittenhouse and how much he wanted to beat the hell out of Wyatt.   
Wyatt wouldn’t have blamed Rufus in the slightest. Wyatt wanted to kick his own ass. He had one job and he blew it. He had asked Lucy to trust him at that very table just a few nights ago and now she was gone. Gone because he was too damn gullible. Too damn compromised. Rittenhouse had his number. They played him like a fiddle. She played him like a fiddle. Why hadn’t he recognized the threat? How many times did he try to go back and save Jess only to have it never work? He had finally let go, he had finally moved on – he was happy for the first time in six damn years and then he had to throw it all away. He brought Jessica into the bunker, hurt Lucy and then sent her, gift wrapped to Carol Preston. All because he was too hung up on his dead wife. Wyatt’s head was in his hands. He would never be able to forgive himself for this. 

“Conner, what’s that?” Agent Christopher had perked up, pointing at a blinking light on the navigation screen. 

“It’s the LifeBoat! “ Conner exclaimed. ‘It’s coming back. It’s here!!” 

Everyone in the bunker rushed to Silo, the air heavy with anticipation. “Jiya and Lucy must have overpowered Jessica.” Rufus quipped as he literally jumped over a chair to stand with bated breath watching for the LifeBoat to materialize. 

The air vibrated around them. The hum and whoosh of the fabric of time being manipulated, filled the air. For one beautiful moment, the fears of those in the bunker were allayed as the time machine blinked into view and then…almost instantaneously it was gone and the air was still once more. 

A hushed silence filled the bunker. Stunned and confused faces were all staring at where the LifeBoat should be. 

“What happened? Where are they?” yelled Wyatt, desperately. 

Rufus looked up from the navigation screen, his voice somber. “They didn’t make it” 

“What do you mean, they didn’t make it?” asked Flynn. 

Conner cleared his throat. “They didn’t complete the jump. There could’ve been a problem with the nav system or it was pilot error.” 

“No, Jiya’s too good of a pilot.” Rufus began typing frantically into the system, trying to get a lock on their location. 

“Will someone please tell me what the hell happened? If they aren’t here where did they go?” asked Wyatt. 

“Not where” said Rufus. “When”. He turned to look at Wyatt, concern plastered all over his face. “They’re lost in time.” 

“What does that mean, lost in time” asked Flynn, his eyebrow raised. “I thought you could track the LifeBoat and the Mothership? It’s how we’re able to chase them through history isn’t it?”

“You are correct” quipped Conner Mason. “The problem is that their intention was to come back to this point in time, so our coordinates show that they are supposed to be here. But as you can see, they aren’t. They didn’t complete the jump. Rufus – you know what to do” 

All eyes were focused on Rufus and Conner Mason as they both were feverishly typing into their respective computers. Agent Christopher asked the obvious question. “Well if they are supposed to be here and they aren’t then how do we find them without the navigation computer? More importantly, if they’re lost in time, how the hell do we retrieve them without a time machine?”

Wyatt was in full blown panic mode now. Lucy and Jiya were stuck in the past and they had no time machine. He was ready to strap on some tactical gear and bust into every damn warehouse within a 50 mile radius in search of the Mothership. 

“Well, that is where things get a bit interesting. Jiya will know the proper protocol for something like this. Rufus and I are running historical facial recognition scans for both Lucy and Jiya. If Jiya follows protocol, she will have made sure that her face will have been plastered somewhere as a clue to where…or rather…when she is. Since they were on their way here, chances are they are in this geographical location but not in this particular point in time.”

“Well, what can we do to help?” Wyatt asked. 

“Look through books – historical ones particularly – maybe we can find a picture or some other kind of clue that gives us an inkling as to when they are.” Mason said resolutely. 

“Hist…wait a minute,” Rufus dashed away from the computer screen and sprinted towards the bedroom he shared with Jiya. Wyatt ran after him, confused but determined to do something, anything to help quell the mounting anxiety. 

He found Rufus ripping books off the makeshift shelf and throwing them down on the tiny cot until he found one in particular, A Photographic History of San Franscisco, and he eagerly wrenched it open and started flipping through pages. 

“What exactly are we looking for?” Wyatt began picking up discarded books and just as quickly tossing them back onto the cot. 

Rufus was feverishly scanning picture after picture in the San Francisco book until suddenly he gasped sharply, held out the book so that Wyatt could see and slammed his hand down on a page triumphantly, “THAT!!”

Wyatt was stunned. There in black and white was a picture of Jiya. It didn’t look like Jiya as they knew her, she was in costume, but the resemblance was uncanny. She was posing for a portrait in what was unmistakably Chinatown in what appeared to be 1888. If there were any doubts as to whether the picture was actually Jiya and not some historical doppleganger, Rufus’ next statement sealed the deal. “Oh my God, she’s written a message in Klingon.”

“Kling-wha? What’s the message? Does it say anything about Lucy?” 

“No…nothing about Lucy. She’s written coordinates for the location of the LifeBoat and….she says…not to come.” 

“What does she mean, don’t come?” Wyatt took the book from Rufus’ hands and looked at the photo as if he could find some explanation as to why Jiya would warn them away. 

“I don’t know – but I’m not leaving her in 1888, that’s for damn sure.” Rufus ran off to inform the others of what they had found and to relay the coordinate information to Conner so that they could locate the LifeBoat.

Wyatt began flipping pages in the photo book searching in vain for any sign of Lucy. As page after page came up empty, his heart began to sink. She must have not escaped. She must still be with her mother. Wyatt gritted his teeth at the thought of Lucy being back in the clutches of Rittenhouse. He remembered how haunted she looked when they had brought her home from 1918 after six weeks of God knows what she went through at Rittenhouse headquarters. He looked over at the cot she once occupied, the cot she sat on when she told him that she had killed a man to prove her loyalty. The cot where he held her as she cried when she thought she had lost everything…and then his own words seemed to echo back to him as if to remind him of how much he failed her, “You haven’t lost me.” 

But a few weeks later, she had. Wyatt buried his face in his hands. How could he have done that to her? How could he have abandoned her like that? 

Wyatt took one last look at Jiya staring at him from a 130 year old photograph. He had to make this right. He hadn’t just failed Lucy, he had failed the entire team. If Lucy was still with Rittenhouse, she was relatively safe. If they had wanted dead, Jessica would’ve just killed her while she was here. No, Jessica said specifically that she was taking her to her mother. Wyatt took a deep, steadying breath. They didn’t know where Lucy was, but they had found Jiya. “Get the LifeBoat, find Jiya, and Jiya can help us find Lucy.” he whispered to himself. 

One problem at a time.


	9. Ch 9

Wyatt brought the photograph book with him to the common area, showing Jiya’s photo to a curious Denise Christopher and Garcia Flynn.  “So I get that Jiya’s stuck in 1888, but how exactly are we going to get her?  We don’t have the LifeBoat.”

 

Rufus was scribbling directions on a piece of paper, “Ever see Back to the Future III, man?

 

Wyatt shrugged, “Sure…but”

 

“Jiya told us where she parked the LifeBoat, we just have to go get it.”

 

“And the LifeBoat is just going to still be there…and working 130 years later?”

 

Conner Mason chuckled, “It’s designed to withstand the fabric of time – she’s sturdy.  But yes, we will probably need to refresh the circuitry and dust her off a bit.”

 

Well, it was the only option they had without tracking down the Mothership, so a 130 year time machine hidden in the California wilderness would just have to do.  _If it’s still there._

 

The coordinates led Mason and Rufus out to the literal middle of nowhere.  Jiya had done a stellar job keeping the LifeBoat hidden for 130 years, they almost didn’t see it.  For one solid week, Rufus and Mason went to work carefully replacing the circuitry and “turning the wrench” to get the time machine back into commission.  Rufus was getting anxious.  He just wanted to get Jiya back home – safe.  She had no one in 1888…since it appeared that Lucy wasn’t along with her when she made the jump.  Or maybe Lucy was hiding from Rittenhouse and that’s why there wasn’t a picture of her.  _Didn’t matter_ , Rufus thought.  _Jiya would tell them everything when she was back with them and safe._

 

Wyatt was equally anxious to get Jiya back.  The sooner she was home, the sooner they could figure out what had happened to Lucy.  Not to mention, it would go a long way in repairing his friendship and trust with the team - particularly with Rufus - who was still understandably upset that Wyatt had screwed everything up with Lucy and acted like a “damn fool.”  He didn’t deny it.  He knew.  And that’s why he was hell bent on making it right.  His job was to protect his team and he had royally f*d up. 

 

After a few false hopes and a nights and days spent inside the cramped space of the LifeBoat.  Connor Mason and Rufus came back to the bunker with the happy news that the LifeBoat was operational once more. 

 

“Let’s go get Jiya.”

 

 

 

Lucy had no idea how long she had been out.  There was no window in her tiny room, only a small sliver of light shone from beneath the door, but as she was inside a building, that could very well be from a well-lit corridor.  Her arm ached where that hired goon of her mother’s jabbed the needle in her arm and she was pretty sure she had a nice bruise on her wrist from where he grabbed her. 

 

But Jiya was safe.  She had escaped.  At least she couldn’t be used as leverage against her.  Lucy sighed.  Maybe it was better this way.  She was out of the bunker, her presence couldn’t hurt them anymore.  _Oh shit._

 

It had all come rushing back to her.  Jessica.  Jessica had been staking out the bunker for Rittenhouse.  She knew every nook and cranny and they were all in danger.  Rittenhouse was going to raid the bunker and most likely kill every one in it…and destroy or steal the LifeBoat.  Lucy let out a shaky breath.  There was nothing she could do to warn them, to save them.  She could appeal to her mother.  Maybe?  But Lucy had a feeling that by asking to save her friends, it would only encourage them to destroy them all the sooner. As long as there was someplace and somebody for Lucy to run to, her mother knew that she would never submit to whatever future she and Nicholas had planned for her. 

 

Scanty meals came and went.  She was allowed outside of her cell a few times a day to go to the bathroom and to sit with her mother for a lecture.  Lucy had no idea how much time had passed since she had been taken, she had no idea how long it had been since Jiya had escaped, until one day Emma Whitmore burst in while she was sitting with her mother and announced that the LifeBoat had jumped. 

 

 _Huh,_ thought Lucy. _We’re usually chasing Rittenhouse.  Why would the LifeBoat jump before the Mothership?_

“Hmmm…they must have figured out the _when_.” murmured Carol as she took a sip of her tea.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m a little confused.  What are you talking about – figured out the when?”  Lucy had a twisted feeling in her stomach that perhaps her bunker family caught wind of Rittenhouse’s plot and used the LifeBoat to escape relatively unnoticed before the Silo was raided by her mother’s goons. 

 

Emma shot her a fierce look and pointedly looked at Carol as if to silence her on the matter, but Carol either didn’t care or didn’t think keeping this information from Lucy was important.  “When your friend Jiya escaped, we received a signal on the Mothership’s navigational computer that there had been a jump failure.”  Lucy let out an audible gasp.  “We had no idea what that could mean, until Emma here explained that a jump failure typically means that the time machine gets lost in time – the destination remains roughly the same, but the time…well, that’s where the big discrepancy lies.”

 

Emma strutted over towards Lucy, arms folded at her waist and bending down to look her in the eyes, “She means, Princess, that Jiya didn’t make it home – we’ve been combing the entire San Francisco area for a week looking for signs of the LifeBoat…news articles anything to give us a lead on its location”

 

“Wait, why?  How?”  Lucy asked, confused. 

 

“For an academic, you’re pretty dim” Emma spat out. “Obviously the LifeBoat would be stuck wherever and whenever Jiya was stuck – meaning that it would still be where she left it.  Find it, and we’ve got the LifeBoat back.  But apparently Mason and his team are a little more resourceful than we gave them credit for.  They jumped from the present time to 1888 – San Francisco by the looks of it.”

 

Lucy’s brow was furrowed in thought.  “How would they know that’s where she ended up?”  Did she send them a telegram?”

 

“Of sorts” said Emma.  She threw down a printed photo of a woman who looked amazingly like Jiya that Lucy recognized immediately.  

 

“I know this photo – it was in my book.  The one that Jiya always liked to borrow.” Lucy said with a disbelieving gasp.   

 

“Time travel, right?”  Emma said with a twisted smile.  “Anyway Carol, Nicholas wants to form a team to go hunt them down.  We take them out, we steal the Lifeboat.  We find Jiya so that she can pilot it back for us.”

 

Carol Preston tapped her fingers on her teacup, pursing her lips.  “We had been planning to raid their bunker….but this could work. We might even be able to find Jiya first and strand the team in 1888,  no need for bloodshed then”  Carol winked at Lucy like that was supposed to make her feel better. 

 

There was a soft knock on the door and suddenly Nicholas Keynes came striding into view.  He touched Emma’s elbow and made a slight bow to Carol.  _His granddaughter_ Lucy thought, her head spinning.  “Carol, has Emma informed you of the developing situation?  We want to leave as soon as possible so that we can get a jump on” he acknowledged Lucy with a nod “her former companions.”

 

“Oh very well, Nicholas, who did you have in mind?”  Carol asked setting down her teacup.  

 

“You, me and Emma and Jessica.  They are, by far, a formidable and deadly team.  I also think it best if our dear Lucy accompany us.” He rocked back on his heels with his hands clasped behind his back. 

 

 

 

Emma absolutely objected and Carol looked almost fearful at the suggestion.  She rang a bell and had Lucy taken out of the room.  Lucy cast a concerned look over at her Rittenhouse relatives.  Whatever they were planning on doing with her couldn’t be good.   

 

As soon as the door closed behind Lucy, Carol turned to argue with Nicholas “No, it’s too soon, she’s not ready.  Her loyalty, currently resides with Mason’s team. She will betray us at the first chance. She will absolutely alert them to our presence.  They will be looking for her and she will be looking for them - we could lose her again.”

 

Nicholas placed his hands over Carol’s agitated ones and gave her a knowing smile.  “It is her relationship with her former team that I’m counting on.  I’m sure they will be searching for her and why not give them what they want?  She will lead them directly to us…and to the LifeBoat.”

 

Emma raised an eyebrow, “So you’re going to use her as bait.”

 

Nicholas nodded, “Precisely”. 

 

 

Lucy was left standing outside her mother’s office in a brightly lit hallway.  She was flanked by two guards and she noted that this place, wherever it was, was not nearly as posh as the place she was held before…though it _was_ much nicer than the bunker.  Still, she would take that ratty old bunker any day over the ostentatious grandeur that was Rittenhouse.

 

 She wanted to be excited about the prospect of traveling to 1888 – if she was ever going to get away from Rittenhouse, that would be her chance.  But the fact that Nicholas wanted her to go along, so soon after being captured, didn’t sit well with her.  They were planning on stealing the LifeBoat and her mother had even suggested leaving them stranded in 1888….so why did they want Lucy there?

 

 So she could watch her friends suffer at Rittenhouse’s hands?  So she could be used as leverage against them?  So they could be used as leverage against her?  Tears stung her eyes as she thought about how much pain she was bringing down on all of her friends.  She wouldn’t do it anymore.  Somehow she would warn them and then she would disappear.  Maybe she would stay in 1888…be lost in time like Jiya was.  If she was lost, then no one would be able to find her and use her as a pawn in a sick, twisted game. 

 

Her mother’s voice called her out of her thoughts, “Lucy, we are preparing the Mothership, you will be accompanying us and” she crossed the hall to speak softly to Lucy “I want you to do exactly as you are told.  You will make me so proud, sweetheart, if you just fall in line.  Your friends will be better off too.” She patted Lucy on the arm and urged her forward. 

 

Lucy took a deep, shuddering breath, blinked back her tears and followed her mother’s lead.        

  

 


	10. Ch 10

Rufus glanced down at photocopy of Jiya’s picture he brought from 2018.  “Okay, guys…so I’m thinking we need to find this portrait studio…that’s our only lead and chances are with the Klingon note, they’d remember Jiya.  I mean, they would recognize her, wouldn’t they?  Here this beautiful woman is getting her picture taken and she puts this poster with weird _Star Trek_ symbols on the ground…that’s something you’d remember, right?”

 

Rufus knew he was rambling.  He was anxious.  To keep himself sane, he kept telling himself that Jiya had to be here, she had to be safe.  But if he was being completely honest with himself, he was terrified that she wasn’t.   Her note had said “Don’t come” and well, what if she had hightailed it out of San Francisco?   What if they never found her and she was stuck in 1888 forever?   He wanted someone to calm his fears and tell him everything would be fine, but as he looked expectantly up at his two time traveling companions, he realized the one who would be soothing his nerves wasn’t there either.  Lucy was missing too. 

 

Flynn wore a scowl, as always, scanning the street and rolling his eyes at Rufus’ incessant talking.  Wyatt looked desperate…his eyes were sharp and focused, settling in on everybody and everything, but there was a nervousness about him that wasn’t usually there.   After a beat, Wyatt stopped them.  “Rufus, look does that look like a photography studio to you?” he asked as he pointed to a very small shop in the midst of a bustling street. 

 

It took Rufus a few seconds to figure out which shop Wyatt was pointing to as the whole block seemed to be comprised of small businesses with almost non-existent placards indicating what their business actually was.  Rufus’ eyes finally settled on a small shop that had various black and white photographs framed in its front window.  “That would be my guess.”

 

“Alright then, let’s go find Jiya” Wyatt led the way across the busy street and the three of them entered the studio hoping against hope that they would at least get a lead on where Jiya might be staying. 

 

 

Emma had tracked down the Chinese photographer fairly quickly, but seeing as they were trying to keep a low profile and draw out the other time travelers, Lucy was sent into the shop to inquire after Jiya.  Emma stationed herself at the side door, in case Lucy thought to escape, Jessica and Carol watched from across the street, and Nicholas led her by the arm to the shop door and entered the store with her. 

 

A tinkling bell announced their entrance into the small dingy shop.  They were immediately met by the shop owner, a Chinese man, who spoke little to no English.  He accosted Nicholas immediately with price quotes, enthusiastically showing him backgrounds, and shoving photo albums into his hands so that he could see the quality of their work. 

 

Lucy had noticed a small girl sweeping in the corner.  She knelt down beside her while Nicholas was pre-occupied with the over-zealous photographer and whispered to her. 

“Do you speak English?”  The girl nodded enthusiastically.  “Good – listen I’m looking for a friend of mine.  She’s in trouble and I have to make sure she stays safe.”  Lucy showed her the picture of Jiya.  “Do you remember her?”

 

The small child’s eyes darted from the picture and then back up towards Lucy quickly with a hint of familiarity.  Lucy pressed a finger to her lips and pointed at her great-grandfather.  The little girl slowly nodded and then whispered to Lucy, “Why is everyone looking for Jiya?” 

 

Lucy’s mouth hung open, she quickly glanced at her great-grandfather to make sure he was still hopelessly distracted by the shopkeeper.  He was.  The shopkeeper was now yelling out different prices to which Nicholas kept shouting louder trying to get the Chinese man to let him have a word in edge wise.  Lucy frantically whispered. “Who is looking for her?  What did they look like?” her heart was pounding, maybe they had already taken Jiya home, maybe Rittenhouse was too late.  Lucy hoped and prayed that they were.

 

Nicholas had had enough, however, and just as the little girl leaned over to answer Lucy, he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the photographer.  Lucy straightened up and tucked the little girl behind her dress.  “Nicholas, there’s no reason…”

 

“The picture, Lucy – show this man the picture – I will not allow this immigrant to take up anymore of my time.” He spat out still holding the gun at the Chinese photographer. 

 

Lucy showed the picture to the shopkeeper and asked him tersely if he remembered her.  The man turned to the child and began speaking in Chinese.  The little girl looked at Lucy who gave a slight nod of her head and a quick glance towards Nicholas.  The girl communicated back to, who appeared to be her father, in Chinese and then she started crying. 

 

Lucy knelt down to her and hugged her, shooting a glare up at Nicholas.  “You’ve frightened them.  Maybe someday you’ll realize that people are more likely to help you when you aren’t threatening them.” 

 

Nicholas smirked at her.  “Fine.  I’ll be right outside the door.  Let’s see how far _you_ get with… _them._ Any funny business and I won’t hesitate to use that gun. _”_ And with that, he stepped outside the shop and stood right outside the door. 

 

Lucy turned back to the little girl, “My name is Lucy, what’s yours?”

 

“Fei” was her short answer. 

 

“Fei, who else came looking for Jiya?  Lucy was near frantic now. 

 

Fei promptly responded.  “Three men – one was tall, the other one was black and the third one had blue eyes.  They seemed nice, but Jiya.  She told me not to tell anyone where she was.”

 

Lucy glanced over at the door to make sure she wasn’t being heard.  “Fei, please you have to do something for me.  You need to find these men and tell them – tell them where Jiya is – tell them so they can take her home and keep her safe. There are bad people here that want to hurt her…and they want to hurt them.  Can you help me?”

 

“Is that bad man going to hurt you?” Fei asked.

 

Lucy glanced to the door where Nicholas Keynes was stationed.  His back was turned towards them and he looked to be scanning the street.  “Not if I can help it.” Lucy said with a small smile. 

 

Fei looked at her sadly and then said “I’m not supposed to tell where Jiya is, she asked me not to tell.”

 

Lucy took her locket off, removed the pictures of Amy and pressed the golden necklace into Fei’s hand.  “Take this – it’s 24K gold – that’s about $500 in today’s money.  Jiya is a friend of mine.  Those three men who came in earlier?  They’re also friends of mine.  The bad man, Nicholas, wants to hurt them – I can’t let that happen.  All I’m asking you to do is find them and take them to Jiya.  Tell them to take her home.  Will you help me?

 

Fei looked at her intently and nodded.  Lucy gave her a hug, wiped her eyes and left the shop. 

 

Upon exiting, she found herself face to face with her great grandfather.  He offered her his arm again and escorted her across the street to where Jessica, Carol and now Emma were waiting.  “That took more time than I would think necessary.”  He murmured to Lucy.

 

“Hardly.  After what you pulled in there, I’m surprised they talked to me at all.”

 

“What did Nicholas do, Lucy?” They had reached Carol and Jessica now and Lucy’s mother was looking between her daughter and her grandfather with a bit of trepidation. 

 

“Let’s just say, I chose a more aggressive tactic.” Nicholas answered.  “But we have yet to hear if Lucy’s gentler ways provided the information we needed.”

 

Lucy sighed and put the picture she was carrying of Jiya into her handbag “They haven’t seen Jiya since they took the picture of her.  They don’t even know if she’s still in San Francisco” Lucy lied.  

 

Emma cast a doubtful glance at Lucy and looked back towards the shop.  She saw the shop girl step out, look up and down the street and take off down the sidewalk.   

 

 

Rufus, Flynn and Wyatt had just finished inquiring after Jiya at a nearby hotel when they spotted the same little girl who had shooed them away from the photography studio. 

 

“Oh shit.” Rufus hissed.  “There’s that mean little Chinese girl.  She may be tiny, but man, she can scream.  I’ve never been so terrified of a child in my life. All I did was show her a picture and she swatted me with a broom.  What the hell??  Why is she coming over here??  Does she work here too?”  Wyatt gave him half a smirk and sidelong glance.

 

“Maybe you just don’t know how to deal with people” Flynn said lazily. 

 

“Oh that’s rich, coming from you…how many people have you killed lately, Flynn?” Rufus hissed. 

 

Flynn smirked,  “You’re right, Rufus…maybe I’ve lost my touch…but dealing with children, well that’s a skill I hear Wyatt is going to be needing soon, so why don’t we let him try to talk to her?  I’m sure he can use the practice.”  Wyatt clenched his jaw and glared at Garcia Flynn who gave him a sarcastic smile in return. 

 

Earlier that day in the cramped doorway of the photography studio, Rufus had managed to yell out “At least tell us where a hotel is in this town!” before Fei had unceremoniously and quite literally swept them out of shop.  She had directed them here and was hoping that she would be able to find them again.

 

 Jiya may have warned Fei to keep the black man away from her, but the lady who had come in the shop after them seemed genuinely concerned about Jiya’s safety.  If she had been like that bad man, then why wouldn’t she have just asked where Jiya was?  No – she had asked Fei to find these three men, her friends she called them, and tell _them_ where Jiya was so that she could stay safe.  Fei didn’t want anyone hurting Jiya, so she decided to trust the kind lady with the necklace and quickly approached the three men.

 

“Um…look we don’t want any trouble.” Rufus started. 

 

Fei glared at him and then eyeballed the other too.  Wyatt knelt down to her level and gave her a soft smile.  “Hey there, did you remember something?” 

 

Fei shot a look at Rufus and took a deep breath, returning her gaze to Wyatt’s face.  “I wasn’t supposed to tell.  Jiya made me promise to keep the black man away from her if he came looking.”  Wyatt and Rufus exchanged looks.

 

“What the he..” Rufus was interrupted by a loud and well-placed cough by Wyatt. 

 

“Okay, why weren’t you supposed to tell?  Is she in trouble?” – Wyatt asked. 

 

“I don’t know – the nice lady who came in the shop told me that she is and then she asked me to find you and tell you that you’re in trouble too.” Fei looked at all three of them as they gave her a quizzical look. 

 

“What lady?” Wyatt asked, his heart pounding in his chest. 

 

“A nice lady.  She came in the shop earlier.  She had a picture, just like you.”  Fei answered. 

 

“What did she look like?”  “Did you tell her where Jiya was?”

 

“She was pretty.  She had dark hair and dark eyes.”  _Lucy._ Wyatt closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.  She was here.  They could get to her.  “She told me that she was trying to keep Jiya safe.  That there were bad people that were trying to hurt her.  And” Fei added, “trying to hurt you.” 

 

“She knew we were here?  Was there anyone with her?”    

 

“Well, I told her that you had come in earlier looking for Jiya.   The bad man who came in with her, he didn’t hear us talking.”  


“How do you know he was a bad man?”

 

“He had a gun…he told her he would use it if she did anything funny.”

 

Wyatt’s expression darkened.  He knew that Lucy was in trouble.  He knew that it was his actions that got her in that mess to begin with and that with Rittenhouse guarding her with a gun it was going to be a tricky situation to get her back – but he would get her back. 

 

Wyatt exchanged quick looks with his two companions and bent back down to Fei.  “The lady who came in your shop, Lucy, did she tell you where she was going?” 

 

Fei shook her head sadly, “No, she just gave me her necklace and asked me to please find you and take you to Jiya so that you could take her home and be safe.”

 

It was only then that Wyatt noticed Fei gripping onto a locket he now recognized as Lucy’s.  The sight of it wrenched his heart.  That was her most prized possession.  He never saw her without it.  It was her one link to the world she knew before Rittenhouse. It was her connection to Amy.  Why would she give it up?  Was she losing hope?  Wyatt didn’t want to dwell on that, but he was more determined than ever to get her away from those assholes.  The sooner they found her, the better.

 

“How long ago did you see her…Lucy?”

 

Fei scrunched her face “It wasn’t that long.  I waited until she and the bad man left and then I ran here.” 

 

“And you’ll take us to Jiya?” Wyatt asked.

 “Yes, I’ll take you now…but if she gets mad at me, I’m blaming you.” 

 

“Fair enough” laughed Wyatt.

 

 

Emma had watched as the shop girl ran up the crowded street.  She didn’t trust Lucy before the mission and she certainly didn’t trust her now.  Where was that little girl going?  Why did she leave the shop as soon as Lucy had left it?  She had every intention of finding out. 

 

Nicholas and Carol had suggested visiting various establishments, dressmakers, restaurants, hotels to try to find someone who might recognize Jiya and tell them where she might be hiding.  Emma ventured off alone in search of the girl. 

 

She hadn’t been gone long, hadn’t even ventured that far, when she caught sight of the girl and just as she had suspected, she was not alone.  With her, were three men that Emma immediately recognized as Garcia Flynn, Rufus Carlin and Wyatt Logan.  “Well, well, well, the Princess strikes again.”  Emma ducked into an alley to allow them to pass and then followed them through the crowded streets of Chinatown. 

 

 


	11. Ch 11

Fei was leading her little entourage to a tavern towards the San Francisco docks. She was telling a VERY interested Rufus all about Jiya’s skills at the card tables. “She’s very tough – no one bothers her – and when she’s not busy, she teaches me card tricks.”

Rufus lifted his eyebrows in surprise and said mostly to himself, “My girlfriend’s a bad ass.”

The streets of 1888 San Francisco were bustling with activity, there were horses, wagons goats chickens, street vendors, and shop keepers everywhere. As they got closer to the docks, the tell-tale signs of a coastal town were everywhere. Crates of shipments from overseas, sailors as well as cowboys crowded the busy sidewalks. It would’ve been very easy to hide in this crowd and Wyatt was beginning to fear that they would never find Lucy. 

They were right on the outskirts of Chinatown, when Wyatt saw finally saw her. Stepping out of a corner hotel and now standing off to the side near an alley was Lucy was flanked on one side by her mother and Jessica. On Lucy’s other side was a man Wyatt did not immediately recognize. He had his arm linked with Lucy’s and was conversing with Lucy’s mother.

Wyatt signaled to the others, tapped Fei on the shoulder and retreated into a side alley about a block away, glancing back at the Rittenhouse group as he did so. “It’s Lucy…she’s right outside that hotel.” 

Rufus stuck his head out of the alley for a look, “Who’s that dude with her?” 

Wyatt glanced over his shoulder again. Carol Preston was talking to a clearly uncomfortable Lucy, touching her face, petting her hair, when the man accompanying them turned slightly. When Wyatt saw his face, he hissed out “That’s the dickhead who shot at me.”

“Shot at you? When?” asked Rufus. 

“When I did that raid over Rittenhouse. I had Carol Preston in my scope and that sonofabitch burst in the room out of nowhere and landed me on my ass.”

“There are children present, Wyatt.” Flynn drawled. 

“Oh yeah, sorry about that kid.” 

Fei giggled and looked over towards where Lucy was standing. “That’s the nice lady who came in the shop. And that man, he’s the one who came in with her. The man with the gun. She called him Nicholas.”

“Nicholas?” asked Rufus “As in Nicholas Keynes? The manifesto guy?”

“That’s the damn soldier they brought back from 1918. I should’ve put a bullet in his head when I had the chance.” Wyatt growled.

“He’s also Lucy’s great grandfather.” Flynn added knowingly. 

Wyatt stared at him. It bothered him to no end that Flynn knew all of these weirdly intimate details about Lucy. “How the hell do you know that?”

“It was in her journal” Flynn said simply. 

“Right.” Wyatt wasn’t interested in discussing more of Lucy’s journal with Flynn. It still bothered him that he had it in the first place, but for him to keep spouting information from it like he had committed it to memory was so damned creepy he couldn’t stand it. 

The fact that Lucy was now being threatened by not only her mother, but also her great-grandfather did nothing to endear Wyatt to her screwed up family tree. 

“Okay kid, things might get a little messy here – I don’t want you getting hurt. Can you tell us where this tavern is?”

“Jiya works in the Old Ship Saloon…it’s not far from here just down this street a little further. You can’t miss it – it’s a pretty popular place.”

Rufus clapped his hands together and a smile spread across his face. Flynn smirked at Rufus’ change in demeanor, “You know, we haven’t gotten her yet. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

Rufus looked to Wyatt for support, but he was kneeling down and talking with Fei. Rufus shrugged his shoulders at Flynn and gave him a confident nod of the head. “We’ll get her. Even if I have to bowl over a dozen damn Rittenhouse agents from here to that saloon, she’s coming home.”

Wyatt said one last goodbye to Fei and watched as she disappeared up the street back towards Chinatown. “Right, if we’re gonna get Lucy we’re going to have to get her away from that asshole. As long as he’s got a grip on her – Shit!”

Emma had just sauntered into view. They plastered themselves against the wall as she passed right by the alley, just a few feet from where they were standing. For a moment, they thought she hadn’t seen them, she was wearing a satisfied smirk on her face and was casually strolling up to her companions. Just as she crossed the alley, she turned her head and smirked directly at Wyatt. 

“Well that’s not comforting.” Rufus squeaked out. 

“C’mon,” said Wyatt, grimly. “She already knows we’re here. – let’s go get Lucy.” 

______________________________________________________________________________ 

Jessica saw Emma approaching and waved her over to the hotel wall where Nicholas and Carol were currently discussing their plan to track down Jiya. “Find out anything?” 

Emma smiled at Jessica’s question and then turned to face Carol and Nicholas. “Oh I think Lucy an answer that question.” She shot a wry smile towards Lucy. “How about it, princess? Want to tell us what you told that little girl back at the photo shop? 

Lucy’s head snapped up when she heard Emma mention Fei. She felt sick. If Emma had hurt Fei because of her, she would never forgive herself. It was just one more person caught in the collateral damage of her life…and an innocent child at that. Emma’s stare was penetrating and a hint of mockery and malice graced her features…she was enjoying this and Lucy wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. “I don’t have the faintest idea of what you are talking about.”

Emma let out a small laugh, “Oh Lucy, you thought you were so smart, trying to keep them safe, but instead, you led them straight to us.”

Lucy was hit with a jolt of panic. She frantically searched the streets for any sign of her rag tag crew, desperate to warn them. 

Emma, however, knew exactly where they were. She whipped around and aimed her gun at Wyatt who Lucy now saw was inching his way towards the little group, crouching behind fruit carts and chicken crates. Lucy wrenched her arm out of Nicholas’ grasp and knocked Emma sideways so that her shot missed its intended mark. 

Emma regained her balance, turned quickly and aimed her gun at Lucy instead, “I am so sick of this.” She pulled the trigger. 

Lucy didn’t hear the gunshot. She thought she would feel the searing pain of the bullet as it tore through her body, but instead she found herself flung against the brick wall of the hotel while her mother staggered in front of her. 

Lucy gave an anguished cry as pandemonium erupted around her. Wyatt was firing at Emma and Jessica who had taken off running down the street. Nicholas had rounded on Lucy and was violently shaking her arm yelling things at her that she wasn’t able to comprehend when he was downed by a bullet from Garcia Flynn’s gun. Lucy slumped down the wall with shaking breaths as her mother groaned beside her. 

Lucy scrambled to her mother’s side, blood pooling out of her chest, her face pale, her breaths short and shallow. “Mom” Lucy whispered painfully. Tears welling up in her eyes and panice exploding in her chest. This should have been her, not her mother…she had made the choice to defy orders, she knew that could have meant her death, but she hadn’t cared. She sobbed bitterly as she worked to stem the flow of blood from the hole in her mother’s chest. “We can fix this…we…we need a doctor.” She cried out. 

“Lucy!!! Lucy!” Wyatt’s voice was calling to her as she frantically tried to stem the bleeding from her mother’s chest. She lifted her eyes to see him, gun pointed and running madly towards her. “Are you alright?” Flynn and Rufus were soon by his side. Lucy nodded, tears streaming from her eyes “I need to get a doctor…my mother…please!”

“You think a 19th century doctor is going to help me?” Carol Preston sighed out, placing a bloody hand over Lucy’s. 

“We need to go track down Emma and Jessica, Rufus, you stay with Lucy. We’ll meet you both at the tavern with Jiya.” Wyatt placed his hand on Lucy’s shoulder as she sobbed over her mother. “I’m sorry, Lucy.” He didn’t want to leave her, but he knew that with Emma and Jessica still on the loose they were all in danger. He gave Rufus his extra gun, nodded at Flynn and the two of them took off running after the rest of the Rittenhouse threat. 

Carol was struggling to speak, her breaths more labored and heavy. Lucy begged her mother to stay silent and pleaded for Rufus to find a doctor. Her mother had just saved her life. Surely that meant she was sorry for all that had transpired in the past year. Lucy couldn’t let her die, not like this, not now. 

“I’m sorry, I thought we would have more time and now look at us. I took your sister away from you thinking I could change it. It was supposed to be cancer, right? 

Lucy shushed her mother again, hoping against hope that every breath she saved would keep her alive just a little longer. 

But Carol was determined to speak. If Lucy thought her mother’s last words to her were going to be those of motherly affection and love, she was sorely mistaken. 

“There’s so much you don’t know about our family, about Rittenhouse. I should have told you sooner. My last wish for you is that you’ll take what’s rightfully yours.”

Numbness spread over Lucy like a blanket as she watched the woman that raised her, cradled her, kissed her skinned knees - draw one last breath. In her last moments, when nothing else mattered in the world, her mother’s biggest regret was not her failed relationship with her (now) only daughter…but that she had failed in her effort to indoctrinate that daughter into Rittenhouse. If Lucy had a heart left to break that would have done it, but instead of heartbreak, she felt nothing. Not grief, not sadness, not anger…she felt dead inside…as dead as the woman who now lay before her. 

She became vaguely aware of an arm around her shoulder, lifting her from the ground. She could feel a hand rubbing up and down her arm as she slowly made her way out of the alley and back onto the busy San Francisco street. 

“Lucy” It was Rufus’ voice. It was quiet and full of sadness. 

“Lucy.” He sounded far away, yet Lucy knew it was his arm that was wrapped around her, his warmth that she felt reaching into the dark, cold abyss in which she found herself. 

“Lucy”. His voice was louder now, he was shaking her slightly. 

Lucy turned her head to look at him, a stony and vacant expression etched on her face. He was looking at her with grave concern, turning her to face him so that both hands rested on her shoulders. “Are you gonna be okay?” 

“My mother is dead.” Lucy said almost robotically. 

Rufus’ expression was one of utmost sympathy. He frowned and blinked back his own tears as he pulled her into a hug. The lack of tears would have unnerved him usually with Lucy, but given what he had just overheard and what he knew hadn’t been said, he understood the pain that she was feeling was too deep to even express. He wrapped his arms around her back and spoke with a voice full of emotion “I’m glad you’re safe, Lucy. We were so worried. We’ve got you now” 

Lucy wrapped her arms around Rufus and clung to him like her life depended on it. It suddenly didn’t matter that her mother had used her last breath to sing the praises of Rittenhouse. That would never be her family. Her family was right here. 

“Come on Lucy, let’s go get Jiya and then we can get the hell out of here and go home.”


	12. Chapter 12

Rufus’ reunion with Jiya wasn’t all what he expected. She was mad at him for coming, for ignoring her warning because of her visions, but she threw herself into his arms and hugged him like there was no tomorrow anyway. 

She took Lucy and Rufus to her shared room while they waited on Flynn and Wyatt. She was terrified that by leaving she would set off a chain of events that would lead to Rufus’ death and was just explaining to Rufus for about the fifteenth time that if she left with him, he would be stabbed by a cowboy with yellow teeth. 

Lucy stood in the hall, peering out into the bar for any sign of the others. She was just starting to get worried when Wyatt and Flynn appeared at the door. She waved them over and rejoined Rufus and Jiya. 

Wyatt and Flynn looked haggard. They had raced over several blocks, searching for any sign of Jessica and Emma and had come up empty handed. “They must have gone back to the Mothership” Wyatt sighed. 

Rufus nodded and then glanced at their reunited group. “Okay, well we’ve got five people, we only have room for four. What are we going to do? How do we all get back?”

“Flynn and I will stay behind, Lucy, Rufus, and Jiya you get home and then Rufus you can come back for us, once their safe.”

No one liked the idea of anyone being left in the past, but Wyatt was insistent that Lucy and Jiya be taken home first. If Emma and her Rittenhouse cronies were still wandering around, he and Flynn had a better chance of dispatching them than any of the others. 

But Jiya still wasn’t on board. She begged Rufus to reconsider, to leave her and be safe – that if they made their way through that bar again, he would be murdered right in front of her.”

Flynn, ever the skeptic to Jiya’s visions, piped up “Well what if we didn’t go through the bar? Is there a back door somewhere?” 

Jiya immediately brightened up “Yeah! There is, we can just slide out through the back way.” 

They reached the back entrance without so much as passing a cowboy with yellow teeth. Jiya gave Rufus a kiss as he held her around the waist saying “See, I told you there was nothing to worry about. Your visions saved my life.” Jiya smiled back at him as they walked out onto a small porch, followed by the rest of their companions. 

One moment they were standing together on that small back porch, an eclectic family of scientists, soldiers and academics – time travelers all - and the next, they were diving behind water barrels, doors and water troughs as gun shots filled the air. 

Lucy had felt the bullet graze her arm as she ducked for cover. As she situated herself behind a barrel, she turned to see Rufus, with blood blossoming over his shirt - the bullet that was meant for her, now lodged in his chest. Jiya was in hysterics. Flynn was still firing his gun at Emma in the furthest end of the porch, doing the best he could to take cover behind a post. Wyatt had made his way over to Rufus pulling out a handkerchief and pressing down hard on his friend’s chest, begging him to be okay. 

Lucy crawled over, knelt in front of Rufus and Wyatt and placed her hands over the handkerchief while Wyatt reloaded his gun. Tears were stinging her eyes, Rufus was gasping for air and Jiya’s hysterical sobs were breaking her already broken heart. “Rufus, hang on…we’ll get you home, just please…hang on.” Lucy sputtered out.

Wyatt had just lifted his eyes from Rufus’ bloodied and gasping form, to Lucy’s beautiful tear stained face when he saw the gun. 

Jessica had stepped out from behind a coach and was aiming her gun directly at Lucy’s back. Wyatt reacted instantaneously. He swiped Lucy to the side with his left arm, shielding her from the bullet and fired his own gun. 

He felt her bullet as it smashed into his shoulder knocking him sideways off of his knees. Jessica wasn’t so lucky. She faltered as his bullet hit her in the abdomen. She walked a few steps, staggered sideways and then collapsed on the ground. Dead.

Wyatt let out a cry of anguish that tore a hole in Lucy’s soul. Flynn made his way painfully towards them, his left arm, limp at his side from a gunshot wound. Emma was running away. 

Lucy took in the scene around her. The death the detruction, the pain. She was no longer numb. Rage like she had never known burned within her, blinding her to all but one single, solitary thought. Kill Emma Whitmore. 

She grasped Wyatt’s gun and took off running into the night, oblivious to the screams Wyatt sent after her, begging her to come back. He tried to give chase, but Jiya had asked begged him to stay. Wyatt gritted his teeth, swallowed his pride and looked to Flynn. 

 

Wyatt couldn’t even look at the body of his dead wife as she lay in the dirty San Francisco street. He couldn’t look at the body of his best friend and time traveling companion as he lay propped up against a water trough, bloody and broken. Instead, he held a weeping Jiya close to his chest and turned his eyes heavenward. He couldn’t remember the last time he had uttered a prayer, but as he looked up at the night sky, he did just that. 

Please God, don’t let Lucy die.

It felt like hours to Wyatt as he and Jiya sat there huddled together, mourning Rufus, and praying that they wouldn’t lose more than they already had that night. He’s not sure what caught his attention first. The huddled figures of Lucy and Flynn making their way painfully back to the porch or the sound of Lucy’s sobs breaking the unnatural quiet of the scene. 

The unparalleled relief he had felt upon seeing her alive was quickly replaced with horror, anger, sadness, guilt and despair as he gazed upon her bruised and beaten face. 

“I ran out of bullets” was all Lucy said as they slowly made their way back to the Lifeboat and back to a present without Rufus.

As soon as the hatch to the LifeBoat opened, Denise Christopher and Conner Mason knew that something terrible had happened. Jiya was covered in blood, Lucy had been beaten, Wyatt and Flynn both wounded. They didn’t need to utter a reply to Conner’s question of “Where’s Rufus?”, their faces revealed the horrible and yet undeniable truth. As they all retreated to lick their wounds, the sobs of Conner Mason reverberated throughout the bunker that was now danker than it had ever been.

 

Sitting on the floor against the bunker wall, ice pack held gingerly to the bruises she had sustained, Lucy stared into nothingness. Emma Whitmore still lived….and so did she. The bruises were a reminder that she could still feel, that she was still subject to the pain Rittenhouse could inflict. She almost hated Flynn for interrupting Emma. Just let me die she had been thinking as Emma choked her and beaten her face. But Flynn had come and she, in one last ditch effort, tried to end Emma Whitmore…and failed. She wouldn’t fail next time. 

Wyatt’s presence broke her out of her dark thoughts. She saw him studying her, watching her….she removed the ice pack and looked up into his face – it was full of pain and anguish. He sat beside her and there they were, two broken people with enough grief between them to fill an entire ocean. 

“It’s all my fault” sighed Wyatt. “If I hadn’t…..if I hadn’t brought her here none of this would’ve happened. I was supposed to keep you and Rufus safe. It was my job and I messed it all up. Just like I messed up everything with us. Rufus is dead because of me”

Lucy turned to look at Wyatt. He was broken. She had never seen him so low. Tears filled his eyes and every line of his face spoke to the depth of his anguish. He had lost Rufus. He had killed Jessica. And he felt like he let them all down, Lucy especially. 

She was broken. Rittenhouse had definitely made her regret that she hadn’t just ended it all in 1918. How much pain and suffering could she have saved herself? How much pain and suffering could she have saved her friends? Wyatt blamed himself. He had hurt her, with Jessica, yes….but his heart had been in the right place. She knew that. 

Lucy reached for Wyatt’s hand and let her fingers slide between his. He closed his eyes tightly as if that action caused him more pain than the gunshot wound in his shoulder. “Wyatt, it’s not your fault. Rittenhouse is to blame. Rufus knew the risks just like the rest of us.” At the mention of Rufus’ name, Wyatt let a tear fall jaggedly down his cheek. “You brought me home safe. You brought Jiya home safe. That’s what mattered most to Rufus.” 

Wyatt shook his head in disbelief. His heart too full of gratitude towards the woman who sat by his side, but he knew it was more than gratitude he felt. “I love you Lucy.” He uttered those words like a prayer. “I know I said it before…but it’s true. I don’t expect anything back. You don’t have to say anything. I hurt you so much over the past few weeks.” Wyatt squeezed her hand and opened his eyes to look at her bruised face. He ghosted his fingers over her swollen cheek and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Lucy.” 

Lucy lifted her hand and touched his hand to her face, leaning into it. “I know, Wyatt.” 

He let his hand fall and turned his head away again, too ashamed to look at her. Those bruises reminded him of his failure to protect her. His betrayal of her trust. This bunker was full of reminders of his deadly mistake in bringing Jessica into their lives. He wanted the forgiveness of Lucy Preston more than anything in the world, but he knew he didn’t deserve it. 

She seemed to sense his inner turmoil…Lucy was always acutely aware of Wyatt’s brooding thoughts even when he couldn’t bring himself to talk about them. She reached up and touched his face, turning it back towards her. “Wyatt” she said softly, “look at me.” 

He reluctantly brought his eyes up to meet hers. His were filled with self-reproach and sorrow. Lucy’s were filled with pity and sadness. He grasped her fingers that were now caressing his cheek. “How can you even stand to be in the same room with me, Lucy?” 

A tear slid down Lucy’s cheek as she pressed a gentle kiss onto his lips. Her own were split, sore and bloodied, but his were soft and warm. More tears fell from his eyes as she touched her forehead to his and sighed “Because I love you too.”

They sat there holding hands, heads together silently crying over all the pain and suffering that had buried them in grief – each desperately clinging to the small thread of hope that those three words promised. In a perfect world there would be no Rittenhouse. In a perfect world Rufus would still be here. In a perfect world there wouldn’t be undead wives and fake fiances. It would just be them. Happy. Together. 

Lucy dropped her hand from Wyatt’s cheek and was pulling away when her attention was caught by a hint of gold around Wyatt’s neck. Her fingers tugged at the chain and caught Wyatt’s attention. “Oh, yeah,” he said softly, “I almost forgot.” He let go of Lucy’s other hand and worked the chain off of his neck and pulled the necklace out from underneath his shirt. “This is for you.”

Lucy stared at the locket…her locket that was now sitting in the palm of her hand. “Wyatt… how?” 

Wyatt gave her a small smile, “I know you gave it to Fei, but I promise I didn’t send her home empty handed.” She looked down at his hand and noticed for the first time in weeks that he wasn’t wearing his wedding band. “Even trade.” He said simply. “But between you and me, I got the better deal.” 

Lucy pressed the locket to her lips and closed her eyes. “Thank you, Wyatt.” He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close and whispered into her hair “Sure thing,…ma’am.” 

Their world wasn’t perfect, but it was their own. They had hit rock bottom and then some. But here, against this cold bunker wall, she felt warm, safe and loved…and that, for now, was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N) Okay, so if you made it this far, you’ve survived. I’m sorry it was so long, but I needed to clear up some of the problems I had with the storyline. To me, there wasn’t an expressed reason that Rittenhouse was in 1888, other than to get Jiya….which I thought was kind of confusing. How did they get there first? Did they know the LifeBoat hadn’t made it? I was confused…so I tried to give an explanation in here. As this is my second attempt at fanfic I feel completely out of my element and TOTALLY self-conscious, but I do hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are welcome!!


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